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US Biofuels Update: Soybean Futures Extend Weekly Rally on Strong Sales

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Biofuels feedstock futures closed higher on Thursday, extending their weekly gains, helped by strong weekly export sales.

The Chicago Board of Trade November soybean futures contract closed 0.16% higher at $12.68 per bushel, while the CBOT September soybean oil futures contract settled 1.16% higher at 68 cents per pound.

The Nymex October ethanol futures contract settled 0.12% higher on Wednesday at $2.05 per gallon.

Rhett Montgomery, a DTN analyst, said the soybean market staged an impressive comeback after weaker overnight trading.

"The soybean market fell through overnight trading to be down as much as 15 cents on the November contract before staging a mid-morning rally to turn modestly higher by afternoon on Thursday," Montgomery said, noting that a "stellar" round of new crop export data from the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday morning was the key driver.

The USDA's Weekly Export Sales Report on Thursday reported an increase of 2.7 million bushels or 73,900 metric tons of soybean export sales in 2025-26 and an increase of 91.1 mb or 2,478,300 mt for 2026-27 for the week ending Aug. 20.

Last week's export shipments of 16.6 mb were below the 19.3 mb needed each week to achieve USDA's export estimate of 1.520 bb in 2025-26.

Soybean export commitments now total 1.541 bb for 2025-26, down 17% from a year ago. That is ahead of USDA's estimated pace, even as its estimate of US ending soybean stocks is 11% larger than the previous five-year average.

Meanwhile, members of the biofuels industry sent the White House a letter on Thursday urging the administration to stand strong against efforts to increase the use of small refinery exemptions.

In the letter, the group stated that reducing blending volumes in the RFS program through the use of SREs will destroy the biofuel demand that is now working to restore the rural economy and reduce fuel costs for drivers.

"History is unambiguous: the last time the Environmental Protection Agency granted SREs at the scale being contemplated, the biofuel industry lost $6.4 billion, renewable fuel credits collapsed by up to 78%, and gas prices rose 12% - RIN prices clearly don't drive gas prices," the letter stated.

It added that refiners drew maximum gains as a result. "The only winners were refiners in a sector that today is reporting record profitability, even as American farmers face down another year of negative incomes," the group said in the letter.

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