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US Biofuels Update: Soybean Complex Jumps on Weather Uncertainty, Demand

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Biofuel feedstock futures closed higher on Monday, with traders still uncertain about daily crop weather forecasts for the Corn Belt; however, gains were limited by weaker energy markets, with the US postponing another round of attacks on Iran.

The Chicago Board of Trade November soybean futures contract closed 0.40% higher at $11.92 1/4 per bushel, while the CBOT September soybean oil futures contract settled 2.27% higher at 68.79 cents per pound.

The Nymex September ethanol futures contract settled down 0.26% on Friday at $1.95 per gallon.

Rhett Montgomery, a DTN analyst, said that traders are letting weather and demand guide trading decisions.

"There remain areas of concern (specifically in the western corn belt) heading into the month of August," Montgomery said.

On Monday, China bought a large number of US soybeans. The US Department of Agriculture announced 488,000 metric tons of soybeans sold for delivery to China during the 2026/2027 marketing year.

Also, 136,150 mt of soybeans were sold for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2026/2027 marketing year.

On Monday, the USDA's Weekly Export Inspection Report showed that new crop soybean sales continue at a very strong pace from the past month.

USDA said that 12.6 million bushels of soybeans were inspected for export in the week ending July 30. This was just slightly lower than the previous week but well below the same week in 2025.

Through the marketing year, soybean inspections now total 1.446 billion bushels and are down 18% from the same point in the 2024-25 year.

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