Flour processing status of enterprises above designated size

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, flour output of enterprises above designated size reached 7.45 million tons in October, up 0.1% year-on-year, and the cumulative production in the first ten months totaled 70.93 million tons, a year-on-year growth of 6.6%. According to BOABC’s monitoring data, the output in October decreased 8.79% year-on-year, and the accumulative output in the first ten months stood at 71.75 million tons, down 19.42% from the same period last year. The estimated annual flour production of enterprises above designated size in 2019 is 85.17 million tons, decreasing by 1.9% from 2010, and it’s higher than the 79.60 million tons in 2009.
In October, the operation rate of flour processing companies in the country was 49.3%, and it’s 52.2% for enterprises above designated size and 17.6% for medium and small businesses.
2) Monthly consumption and month-end inventory of wheat
In October, 9.836 million tons of wheat was processed in the country, bringing in 7.278 million tons of flour and 2.557 million tons of by-products. Taking the consumption of wheat as seed into account, the total consumption of wheat in October was 14.50 million tons. The inventory of wheat in China stood at 153 million tons at the end of October, reaching a monthly safety factor(month-end inventory/monthly consumption) of 10.5.  
3) Market status
Wheat prices were CNY2328/ton in October and CNY2358/ton in November, which decreased by 4.7% and 4.1% year-on-year respectively. The increase in wheat production led to the year-on-year decline in wheat prices. The factory prices of flour were CNY2996/ton in October and CNY2985/ton in November, which fell by 3.46% and 2.34% year-on-year respectively.
Wheat middling prices were CNY1812/ton in October and CNY1827/ton in November, which increased by 0.86% and 2.2% year-on-year respectively.
Wheat bran prices were CNY1410/ton in October and CNY1423/ton in November, which decreased by 3.81% and 4.68% year-on-year respectively. The actual processing gross profit of wheat was CNY243/ton in October and CNY207/ton in November.
Comprehensively considering the processing quantity of flour and electricity price, in October, the sales revenue of flour processing industry stood at CNY25.6 billion, up 12.43% year-on-year, and the gross profit was CNY 2.4 billion, a year-on-year growth of 42.4%.  The profit ratio of sales of flour processing companies was 9.31% in October.
4) Flour supply and consumption
In October, China imported 21,000 tons of flour. Taking the inventory at the end of September, import volume and output into account, the supply of flour totaled 7.982 million tons in October. By consumption ways, the consumption of flour in food, industry, feed, and exports stood at 6.96 million tons, 34,000 tons, 298,000 tons, and 24,000 tons respectively, which totaled 7.314 million tons in October. The inventory of flour was 666,000 tons at the end of October, registering at a sales rate of 100.5%.
Flour consumption in food: the consumption of flour stood at 2.703 million tons for households (797,000 tons for urban households and 2.703 million tons for rural households), 3.195 million tons in catering and 1.06 million tons in food industry respectively.
As for per capita flour consumption, it reached 5.22kg in October. Of that, the per capita consumption for food was 4.99kg, including 1.94 kg for household consumption, 2.29kg for catering, and 0.76kg for food industry. In household consumption, the per capita consumption in urban households stood at 0.96kg, and it reached 3.38kg in rural households.