BEIJING, June 20 (Reuters) - China's soybean imports from the United States rose 1.8% year-on-year in May, as cargoes purchased after Beijing resumed buying U.S. beans late last year continued to arrive at Chinese ports.

A May 14-15 summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping left unchanged a soybean purchase commitment of 25 million metric tons annually through 2028, according to senior U.S. officials and a White House statement.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the sale of 132,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to China for delivery in the 2026/27 marketing year, marking the first publicly reported Chinese purchase since the May summit.

KEY DETAILS:

• China imported 1.66 million tons of soybeans from the United States in May, up from 1.63 million tons a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Saturday.

• Imports from Brazil fell 17.7% year-on-year to 9.96 million tons from 12.1 million tons in May last year.

• Total soybean arrivals declined 15.3% year-on-year to 11.79 million tons in May. However, the volume exceeded analysts' expectations of around 11 million tons, partly due to smoother port logistics that supported imports.

• In the January-May period, soybean imports from the United States fell 42.5% from a year earlier to 8.38 million tons, while shipments from Brazil rose 6.7% to 22.68 million tons.