China Slashed U.S. Soybean Imports in Half in 2018 After Trade War

(Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest soybean buyer, almost halved imports of the commodity from the U.S. in 2018 after a trade war with America hurt shipments from the Asian nation’s second-largest supplier.

• China bought 16.64 million tons of soybean from the U.S. in 2018, a drop of 49 percent from the year before, according to Bloomberg calculations based on customs data. Imports from Brazil, China’s largest supplier, totaled 66.1 million tons, up 30 percent from 2017.

Key Insights

• China increased soybean imports largely from Brazil after imposing 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. shipments
  • Shipments from Brazil accounted for 75 percent of China’s total imports in 2018
  • U.S. makes up 19 percent of China’s total soybean imports

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• In December, China imported 69,298 tons from the U.S.
  • That’s sharply down from 6.2 million tons in December 2017
• Imports from Brazil in December at 4.4 million tons
  • That’s a huge increase from 1.9 million tons in December 2017
• READ: China Soy Imports Drop for First Time in 7 Years on Trade Spat

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Niu Shuping in Beijing at nshuping@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anna Kitanaka at akitanaka@bloomberg.net, Atul Prakash

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Bloomberg