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US Biofuels Update: Soybean Futures Drop Amid Lack of Chinese Demand, Favorable Crop Weather

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Biofuels feedstock futures closed lower on Monday, with soybean futures slowing their selling pace in recent sessions, but remained lower.

The Chicago Board of Trade July soybean futures contract closed 0.51% lower at $11.15 3/4 per bushel, while the CBOT July soybean oil futures contract settled 0.59% higher at 74.56 cents per pound.

The Nymex July ethanol futures contract settled 0.52% higher on Friday at $1.94 per gallon.

Rhett Montgomery, a DTN analyst, said the soybean traders are frustrated by a lack of confirmed sales to China for the upcoming marketing year.

"The soybean market retreated for a seventh straight session, still pressured by a good weather outlook for June and uncertainty regarding Chinese demand for US soybeans," Montgomery said.

The analyst added that from a technical standpoint, "the July board is currently caught in an area with no immediately clear support, having broken below all three major moving averages, and may be on a path to challenge January price levels set prior to the onset of the 2026 rally."

The US Department of Agriculture on Monday announced the sale of 264,000 metric tons of soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2026/2027 marketing year. Also, 103,000 mt of corn were sold for delivery to Japan.

On Monday, the USDA's Weekly Export Inspection Report showed soybean bookings totaled 14.6 million bushels for the week ending June 4.

Total inspections for 2025-2026 are now at 1.325 billion bushels, down 20% from the previous year. USDA is estimating soybean exports to total 1.530 bb in 2025-2026, down 19% from the previous year.

Soybean inspections are running behind USDA's estimated pace, even as its estimate of soybean ending stocks is 20% larger than the previous five-year average.

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