Analysis of Factors on the US Soybean Pricing in China’s Import Market – Based on principal component analysis

Using quarterly data from 2002 to 2014, based on principal component analysis, this paper studies the factors affecting the US soybean pricing in China’s import market, and results show that China’s soybean import quantity from the US has positive impact on the US soybean pricing in China’s import market, but its impact is very weak. China’s gross domestic product, China’s domestic soybean production price index, the yuan-dollar exchange rate, the yuan-Argentine peso exchange rate and the yuan-Brazilian real exchange rate have negative impact on the US soybean pricing in China’s import market. According to this, there are some recommendations: maintain the growth of gross domestic product; improve soybean TFP to reduce soybean producer price index reasonably; take advantage of the exchange rate mechanism effectively to adjust the cost of soybean imports.