“Our phones weren’t ringing off the hook yesterday with all kinds of purchasing orders coming in,” Eric Hansotia, chief executive officer of tractor maker AGCO Corp., said Friday on a call with investors after the company reported third-quarter earnings. However, he said China’s soybean commitment is “net positive.”
Soybean futures jumped after the export agreement was announced this week following a summit between Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping. Prices gained about 11% in October, the biggest monthly increase in more than three years.
“Our farmers are very happy,” Trump told reporters Friday. “I suggest that they go out and buy larger tractors and more land.”
Farmers have been putting off new equipment purchases throughout the year as China, the world’s largest commodities buyer, avoided US crops.
For AGCO, sales in the key North American market of tractors were down 10% through the first nine months of the year, while sales of crop-cutting combines were 29% lower. The company’s shares fell as much as 4.7% after sales missed expectations.
China’s resumption of US crop imports and as well as a forthcoming aid package for American farmers should be a help in 2026, according to Hansotia.
“We think this is going to be a little bit of a ‘show me’ situation where the farmers are going to need to have the trades actually happen,” he said.
— By Michael Hirtzer and Skylar Woodhouse (Bloomberg)
