China’s shopping spree of U.S. agriculture goods has extended to a rare purchase of soybean oil.
The Asian nation is the world’s top soybean importer and crusher. That’s why a sale of 20,000 metric tons of U.S. vegetable oil that was announced Thursday is a bit of an outlier. It’s the biggest such deal since November 2016.
“I’m not sure why they bought U.S. soyoil,” said Charlie Sernatinger, global head of grain futures at ED&F Man Capital Markets Inc. in an email. “Would seem to be strictly for Phase I numbers.”
Even if China’s soy crushers aren’t churning out enough vegetable oil, U.S. soybean oil is currently priced at a premium to Argentine oil, Sernatinger said. Soybean oil futures jumped by as much as 1.5% in Chicago.