China is buying more U.S. soybeans, with state firms booking about 1.3 million tons

Chinese state-owned companies have reserved no fewer than 20 shiploads of U.S. soybeans, roughly 1.3 million tons in total, according to Bloomberg. The purchases this week are China's first since the late-September summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The cargoes will ship from the U.S. Gulf and Pacific West, and most will load between December and March, according to Bloomberg.

In spot reports this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture disclosed sales of 800,000 tons of soybeans to China, equal to about 12 cargoes, for delivery in the 2026-27 marketing year, according to Bloomberg. The agency also logged another 283,450 tons sold to undisclosed destinations abroad, a portion of which may ultimately land in China.

Beijing is poised to cut import duties across a variety of U.S. farm goods, wheat and corn among them, according to lists both governments published following the summit. Those reductions form part of a broader effort to cut tariffs on roughly $30 billion worth of goods that each country ships to the other, according to Bloomberg.

Soybeans have yet to show up on any of the tariff-cut lists published thus far. U.S. cargoes entering China would face tariffs of about 13%, a cost that rules out profitable purchases by commercial importers, according to Bloomberg. State-owned firms are driving the purchases as Beijing advances toward its commitment to import a minimum of 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans every year through 2028.

China had already been buying U.S. soybeans ahead of the summit. Purchases of roughly 1 million metric tons in early September pushed China's total U.S. soybean intake to just under half of the 25 million metric tons it pledged to buy each year. State-owned buyers Sinograin and COFCO were among those driving that activity.

The pledge stems from a framework set at a May summit between Trump and Xi in Beijing. Both governments affirmed the 25 million-ton annual soybean commitment at that meeting, along with $17 billion a year in other American agricultural goods through 2028.