Last month, about 189.774 million bushels of soybeans were processed at U.S. oil extraction plants, according to monitoring data from the national association NOPA. Experts note that these are the highest volumes in the history of observations, which were last recorded in December 2021 (186.438 million bushels).
The current figure also exceeded the estimate of nine analysts (187.237 million bushels) previously polled by Reuters.
New refineries to be opened
“Growing demand for vegetable oil for biofuel production has triggered a massive expansion of domestic refining capacity. In the next few years, new refineries are scheduled to be opened or existing refineries will be modernized,” the industry association said.
For example, NOPA emphasized that Archer Daniels Midland and Marathon Petroleum opened a facility in North Dakota this week that will process up to 150,000 bushels of soybeans per day.
Meanwhile, the association said that by Oct. 31, U.S. soybean oil stocks continued to decline for the sixth consecutive month and fell to their lowest level since December 2014. – 1.099 billion pounds.
The National Oilseed Processors Association’s NOPA report includes information on its 13 member companies, which account for about 95% of America’s soybean processing market.