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US Biofuels Update: Soybean, Soybean Oil Futures Slump on Weak Demand, Favorable Crop Weather

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Biofuels feedstock futures closed lower on Thursday, with soybean futures hit hard after another week passed with no labeled sales to China for the upcoming 2026-27 season.

The Chicago Board of Trade July soybean futures contract closed 2.12% lower at $11.29 1/2 per bushel, while the CBOT July soybean oil futures contract settled 3.07% lower at 76.29 cents per pound.

The Nymex July ethanol futures contract settled 1.27% lower on Wednesday at $1.95 per gallon.

Rhett Montgomery, a DTN analyst, said the soybean market has dropped by over 50 cents per bushel in the first week of June alone.

"Soybean futures bore the brunt of the trader selling on Thursday, facing the same bearish weather implications but with losses accelerated in sluggish export demand as well as a sharp turn in soybean oil futures, which on a combination of profit taking as well as bearish influence from lower outside energy markets," Montgomery said.

The analyst added that soybean product values have also turned lower this week, with board crush premiums dropping as well, though still among record levels and in a steady higher trend through 2026 thus far.

For the week ending May 28, 2026, the US Department of Agriculture reported an increase of 10.2 million bushels or 276,900 metric tons of soybean export sales in 2025-26 and an increase of 8.9 mb or 243,000 mt for 2026-27.

Last week's export shipments of 20.9 mb exceeded the 15.8 mb needed each week to meet the USDA's export estimate of 1.530 billion bushels for 2025-26.

Soybean export commitments now total 1.468 bb for 2025-26, down 18% from a year ago. That is ahead of USDA's estimated pace, even as its estimate of U.S. ending soybean stocks is 16% larger than the previous five-year average.

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