Deadly pig disease to bog down soyabean trades
Against a backdrop of trade tensions between China and the US as the latter insists trade must be on a level playing field, African swine flu has arrived in China. This has led to a mass cull of pigs and led to lower demand for key livestock food in the form of soyabeans. This collapse in demand for soyabeans in China has significantly hurt dry bulk tonne mile demand. Lower demand as a result of the swine flu means that even without the effects of tariffs, it would take years to restore the earlier seaborne volumes
The fall in volumes from the US and Brazil to China has led to an 8.5% drop from last year in the tonne-mile demand generated by the two dominant soyabean exporters, BIMCO noted