BEIJING, May 10 (Reuters) - China, the world's top soy importer, will offer 2.5 million tonnes of soybeans to crushers from state reserves, mainly in inland provinces in the northeast, to cut government stocks before the new harvest, industry sources said on Thursday.
Sources expected the release, which will start late May, to have only a minor impact on imports because soy plants in the country's northeast use only domestic soybeans for crushing.
"The release takes place mainly in the northeast provinces, we don't expect any major impact to crushers south of the area which use imported soy," said one industry source.
The amount of soy from 2008-2010 harvests would be offered at regular auctions at prices of 3,700-3,850 yuan ($590-$610) per tonne, lower than the 4,250 yuan per tonne for imports offered at major ports in the north.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
China Jan-April soy imports up 22.3 pct on year. [ID:nL4E8GA1QA]
China soy imports graphic: http://link.reuters.com/xuh28s
China trade suite: http://link.reuters.com/fut96s
Expensive CBOT prices to boost China state soy sales [ID:nL4E8G34JK]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
Beijing last year released about the same volume of state reserves at discounted prices to some major crushers, the release triggered cancellations of a large number of imported cargoes.
"The market has been expecting this for a while. We don't think there would be any cancellations as happened last year. Crushers are still looking for cargoes and unlike last year, when they overbooked at the time," said one senior soy trader.
Crushers have been cautious and slowed down their purchases for shipment after July as current Chicago Board of Trade prices <0#S:> would give negative crushing margins, traders said.
But the prices are attractive to crushers in the northeast, where domestic soy was priced at about 4,100 yuan per tonne.
Some crushers in northern provinces of Shandong and Hebei have since late April increased purchases from the regular state reserves, although the volume was very small - 68,328 tonnes this week.[ID:nL4E8G34JK]
The sources said that because the reserve stocks were aging, the quality of the soybeans was deteriorating.
($1 = 6.3097 yuan)
