U.S. Soybean Crushings Rebound in December

 

The National Oilseed Processor Association (NOPA) issued December soybean crush and stocks data on Wednesday, January 15. According to the data, NOPA member soybean processing in the third month of the 2019/20 product (October-September) marketing year totaled 4.758 million tonnes. December crushings were up 0.27 million tonnes from November and were the largest crushing for the month and also came in at the second-largest monthly total. Cumulative crushings of 14.109 million tonnes are up slightly from 13.909 million the same period last year.

 

 

According to analysts’ expectations published by Reuters, the trade was looking for crush to come in near 4.671 million tonnes with the highest published guess coming in slightly below the actual crushings at 4.736 million tonnes. The solid rebound in processing came after November crushings fell short of the trade’s expectations, which was attributed to limited farmer selling. The rebound in December suggests that improving crush margins, along with greater movement of new-crop soybeans were likely features that pushed processing rates.

 

Video: USDA Feb Crop Report a WIN for Soybeans + 1 Year Trade Truce Extension

USDA took Trumps comments that China would buy more U.S. soybeans seriously and headline news that the U.S./China trade truce would be extended when Trump/Xi meet in the first week of April was a BIG WIN for soybeans this week! 2026 “Mini” U.S. ethanol boom thanks to 45Z + China’s ban of phosphates from Feb. – August of 2026 will not help lower fertilizer prices anytime soon! 30 mmt of Chinese corn harvest is of poor quality and maybe a technical breakout in wheat futures.

*Apologies! Where we talk about the latest CFTC update as of 10th Feb 2026, managed money funds covered their net short position in canola to the tune of +42,746 week-on-week to flip to net long 145 contracts and not (as we mistakenly said) +90,009 wk/wk to 47,408.