In a recent weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “soybeans are one of the most important dry bulk commodities, and account for almost 5 percent of all seaborne dry bulk trade. In the last calendar year, Jan-Dec 2024, total seaborne exports of soybeans declined by -5.0% year-onyear to 142.3 mln tonnes, according to vessel tracking data from AXS Marine. This year, however, things have turned around quite spectacularly. In Jan-Oct 2025, global loadings increased by +8.9% y-o-y to 138.6 mln t, from 127.3 mln t in Jan-Oct 2024. This was also above the record 128.8 mln tonnes loaded in Jan-Oct 2023. The largest exporter of soybeans by far is Brazil, which accounted for 74.1% of global soybean exports by volume in Jan-Oct 2025”.
According to Banchero Costa, “in Jan-Oct 2025, total shipments from Brazil increased by +10.2% y-oy to 102.7 mln tonnes, up from 93.2 mln tonnes in Jan-Oct 2024. In second place are the United States, which accounted for 14.9% of global soybean exports this year. In Jan-Oct 2025, soybean exports from the USA declined by -12.5% yo-y to 20.7 mln tonnes. This was the lowest volume in at least a decade and follows a -18.0% y-o-y drop recorded in this period last year. Far in third place is Argentina, with a 6.3% share so far in 2025. In Jan-Oct 2025, Argentina exported 8.7 mln tonnes of soybeans, up +80.9% y-o-y from the 4.8 mln t in Jan-Oct 2024, and well above the 1.8 mln tonnes in Jan-Oct 2023.
“In terms of imports, the top destination for soybeans so far in 2025 is still Mainland China, accounting for 64.3% of global seaborne imports. Deliveries to China in Jan-Oct 2025 declined by -11.5% y-o-y to 77.3 mln tonnes, reflecting primarily extremely low imports in 1Q 2025, which were down by over two-thirds year-on-year. This was due to China holding out from buying US soybeans and waiting for the (abundant) Brazilian crop instead, which was however somewhat delayed. In fact, Brazilian shipments really started to peak up only from February and March of this year. In second place in terms of soybean imports is the European Union, where import volumes declined in Jan-Oct 2025 by -11.6% y-o-y to 9.9 mln tonnes. The EU now account for 8.2% of global seaborne soybean imports. Let’s now focus a bit more on Brazil. 85.6% of soybeans exports from Brazil in Jan-Oct 2025 were loaded on Panamaxes, 11.4% on Supramaxes, 1.2% on PostPanamaxes, 1.4% on Handies”, the shipbroker said.
Banchero Costa added that “top soybean export ports in Brazil in Jan-Oct 2025 were: Santos (32.8 mln t in Jan-Oct 2025), Itaqui (15.4 mln t), Paranagua (12.9 mln t), Barcarena (7.9 mln t), Rio Grande (7.9 mln t), San Francisco do Sul (5.6 mln t), Aratu (4.7 mln t), Tubarao (4.0 mln t), Itacoatiara (3.4 mln t), Santarem (3.4 mln t). China is by far the top destination for Brazilian soybeans, accounting for 68.6% of Brazil’s soybean exports in Jan-Oct 2025. In Jan-Oct 2025, soybean shipments from Brazil to China increased by +4.9%% y-o-y to 70.5 mln tonnes, following a -0.7% y-o-y decline in Jan-Oct 2024 and a +41.9% surge in Jan-Oct 2023. It’s important to point out that in the same period of Jan-Oct 2025, soybean exports from the USA to China collapsed by -60.5% y-o-y to just 5.4 mln tonnes, from 13.8 mln t in Jan-Oct 2024. The second most important destination for soybeans from Brazil is the European Union, which accounted for 5.6% of Brazil’s exports this year. Shipments from Brazil to the EU declined by -13.6% y-o-y in Jan-Oct 2025 to 5.8 mln tonnes. In addition, 2.4% of Brazilian exports were shipped to Thailand, 2.0% to Vietnam, 1.9% to Turkey, 1.7% to Iran, and 1.2% to Pakistan”, the shipbroker concluded.
Source: Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
