US soybean crush dropped to a near three-year low of 168 million bushels in August, according to the USDA’s Monthly Fats and Oils report released on Tuesday October 1.

The crush figure was down by 13% month on month and by 0.6% year on year as processing facilities were shut for scheduled maintenance ahead of the fall harvest season.

Implied demand for soybean oil also continued to run stronger than expected, with US soyoil stocks at 1.629 billion lb by the end of August, down from 2.009 billion lb in July and from 1.772 billion lb in August 2023.

Soybean oil demand in the US has been rising due to increased renewable diesel (RD) production and capacity additions, but vegetable oil has been slowly losing market share to cheaper fats, waste oils and greases (FOGs).

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