China's soybean meal prices drop as soybean imports rise, tariff impact dims

By Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson

BEIJING, April 10 (Reuters) - China's soybean meal futures tumbled on Thursday, ending a five-session rally, as traders turned their focus to expectations of strong soybean arrivals and tariff concerns faded.

The most-active soybean meal contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DSMcv1 fell 1.79% to 3,077 yuan ($418.96)per metric ton by 0248 GMT, its sharpest daily fall in a month.

China on Wednesday said it would hike tariffs on imports from the U.S. to 84% to counter higher U.S. duties on Chinese goods as tensions between the two superpowers deepened.

China had earlier put tariffs of 10%-15% on $21 billion worth of American agricultural and food products.

China's tariff hike had limited impact on domestic markets, with no significant effects expected until U.S. new crop supplies became available in October, traders and analysts said.

"Soymeal's earlier bullish sentiment is fading as traders digest recent gains and shift focus to an expected wave of soybean imports from Brazil in Q2," said Wan Chengzhi, an analyst from Capital Jingdu Futures.

U.S. President Donald Trump, in a sharp reversal on Wednesday, announced a temporary easing of steep duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries, but he kept the pressure on China, which has the second biggest share of U.S. imports.

Trump said he would immediately raise the tariff on Chinese imports to 125% from the 104% level that took effect at 0401 GMT on Wednesday.

The China-U.S. tariff spat has already accelerated China's pivot to Brazilian supplies, setting the stage for record imports in the second quarter.

Rapeseed meal futures followed a similar price track as soymeal. The most-active rapeseed meal contract CRSMcv1 on the Zhengzhou exchange dropped 2.26% to 2,593 yuan per ton.

Rapeseed meal, often used as a substitute of soybean meal in animal feed, faced additional pressure from rising supply.

China has bought 52,000 tons of Indian rapeseed meal in the past three weeks, four times the amount Beijing imported from India in the whole of 2024, Reuters reported earlier.

"That's easing supply worries and weighing on prices," said Zhang Deqiang, an analyst at research firm Sublime China Information.

($1 = 7.3444 yuan)