Chinese state-owned firms bought at least eight bulk shipments of U.S. soybeans, or at least 480,000 metric tons, for shipment in Dec­ember and January, Reuters re­­ported last week.

The bulk of the sales were for shipment from Pacific Northwest ports, with the remainder due to ship from U.S. Gulf Coast terminals, they said.

The deals were the latest in a string of large farm commodity purchases by China, which vowed to import record amounts of U.S. agricultural goods this year as part of a Phase 1 trade deal signed in January.

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