Singapore, Nov 16: China has bought many more cargoes of soybeans and canola for its crushing industry, while Indian soymeal prices have remained little changed with the absence of Chinese import demand, traders said on Tuesday.``China needs oil. They are going to buy more rapeseed and soybeans,'' a trader said, adding the country sealed deals for three to four cargoes of canola from Canada or Australia and up to 400,000 tonnes of US soybeans over the past two weeks.
Traders said Chinese imports of soybeans were heading towards four million tonnes this year, while rapeseed imports were nearing three million tonnes due to high crushing margins granted by lower vegetable oil imports.A US-China trade deal on Monday, which has helped to pave the way for Beijing to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), might dampen its appetite for foreign oilseeds in the medium term as it would allow more vegetable oil imports, some traders said.
``It (the deal) could be bearish for oilseeds and slightly bullish for vegetable oils. It may be also bullish for US corn as China may export less (corn),'' said the first trader.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.