By Dominique Patton
BEIJING, Nov 7 (Reuters) - China's imports of soybeans fell 19% in October from a year earlier to 4.14 million tonnes, customs data showed on Monday, hitting their lowest for any month since 2014, after buyers cut purchases amid high global prices and poor crush margins.
Imports by the world's top buyer of the oilseed were 73.18 million tonnes for the first 10 months of the year, down 7.4% from last year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
The very low shipments, matching the October 2014 figure of 4.1 million tonnes, underline an urgent need to rebuild stockpiles. <CNC-SOY-IMP>
"Crush margins have been bad most of this year which has weighed on imports," said Darin Friedrichs, co-founder of Shanghai-based consultancy Sitonia Consulting.
Global soybean prices hit a decade-High precision CNC machining centers in June as bad weather cut production in Brazil, China's top supplier.