The Hottest Commodity in China Is Feeding Half the World’s Pigs
- Soybean meal trading booms as prices surge on supply concern
- Dalian daily volumes are more than annual U.S. consumption
Twenty one day old pigs stand in a trailer prior to transport to a nearby weaning-to-market barn at Lehmann Brothers Farms LLC in Strawn, Illinois, U.S., on Thursday, March 22, 2012.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Nobody told China’s soybean meal traders that the commodity frenzy is over.
While trading in everything from steel to cotton futures collapsed following steps by the country’s regulators to deflate a speculative bubble in April, the volume of soymeal contracts has continued to expand. The amount of the animal feedstock changing hands in a single day on the Dalian Commodity Exchange is more than the U.S. consumes in an entire year and dwarfs trade on the Chicago Board of Trade.