VAT Reduction Causes Chinese Soybean Imports to Decline in April Chinese soybean imports fell to only 6.9 MMT last month, down 13.7 percent from April 2017 and less than analysts’ projections of about 8.5 MMT. The main cause of the decline was a reduction in the value-added tax (VAT) on soybeans from 11 percent to 10 percent as of 1 May 2018. Several importers apparently delayed discharging shipments until after that date as they could save close to $300,000 in VAT payment per shipload by doing so, an amount enough to cover several days of ship demurrage. China’s soybean imports during January-April totaled 26.49 MMT, down from 27.54 MMT in the same period of 2017. However, imports in May are expected to be higher than last ye...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.