After the March monthly record of 13.5 MMT, Brazil’s April soybean exports have broken all monthly records at a massive 17.4 MMT. With significant line-ups in all the Brazilian grain ports at present, May’s export figures will almost certainly top last year’s figure of 14.1 MMT especially as farmers/Shippers seek to take advantage of exporting at the current sky-high prices which at $565 per ton FOB (ex Paranagua) are double the price this time last year and are at their highest levels since September 2013.

Soybeans destined for China once again dominate the export market with 24.3 MMT out of 33.5 MMT total shipments heading there in the first 4 months of 2021. The next largest export market this year is Spain with 1.2 MMT followed by Thailand, The Netherlands and Turkey all around 0.8-0.9 MMT; shipments to Iran , Pakistan and Mexico are all up at around 0.5 MMT whilst other export markets include Bangladesh, Italy, Taiwan and Vietnam at 0.4 MMT whilst cargoes transported to Algeria and Saudi Arabia at 0.3 MMT have nearly doubled y-o-y.

The southern ports of Santos (at 10.5 MMT), Paranagua (5 MMT) and Rio Grande (3.8 MMT) and Sao Francisco Do Sul (1.5 MMT) account for around 65% of all exports so far this year though further north Itaqui (at 3.3 MMT), Villa do Conde (2.8 MMT) and the Amazon loading ports (c2.5 MMT) of Barcarena/itacoatiara/Santa/Santarem are increasing market share.

With so much of Brazil’s soyabean crop heading to China and South East Asia, Kamsarmax/Panamax vessels have come to dominate this long-haul trade. Clearly this sector benefited most from so many vessels sitting idle in port line-ups in early March due to the late arrival of the crop; though this figure is now down at 71 vessels from a peak of 161, strong cargo volumes continue to provide market momentum reflected by P6 at $28,000 in the BPI 82 Index as most of the tonnage carrying these soybeans ballasts back from the Far East.