U.S. West Coast Soybean Exports to China: What's Driving the Surge

Unless you’re a farmer or food processor, the commodities being shipped to China from seaports on the U.S. West Coast are not especially glamorous. The stuff made in Silicon Valley, in the aerospace plants in the Los Angeles basin, and in San Diego’s pharmaceutical cluster go almost entirely by air. Indeed, the oceanborne cargos bound for China from USWC ports are dominated by agricultural produce and by-products of food processing.

Since the start of President Trump’s second term in the White House, U.S. maritime exports to China have been in flux, as Exhibit A indicates.

Much of the flux can be attributed to agreements with China to purchase more soybeans from the United States. On the West Coast, the bulk of soybean tonnage shipped to China is handled by three ports on the Washington State bank of the Columbia River, with smaller volumes moving through the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle. Exhibit B attests to the role in USWC soybean exports to China played by the Ports of Kalama, Longview, and Vancouver (WA).