U.S. Soybean Seaborne Exports

China’s suspension of purchases of American soybeans is having unmistakable consequences.

Exhibit 4 displays the abrupt falloff of soybean shipments to China starting in April as well as the volumes shipped to the next four largest overseas customers for U.S. soybeans, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, and Japan.

Exhibit 5 displays the volume of soybean shipments through American ports from January 2024 through July of this year.

The complete collapse of this export market to China has reportedly prompted the Trump Administration to consider again bailing out the nation’s soybean growers for any financial loses stemming from the loss of access to what had formerly been their largest foreign market. There are, however, no indication that anyone is also weighing similar bequests for the ocean carriers, seaports, trucking lines, or railroads that would normally have transported those soybeans from the Upper Midwest to Chinese customers.