- We have seen another lacklustre day punctuated by news from Egypt that GASC has once again secured further wheat supplies, this time for first half Dec ’13 shipment. The tender was awarded to Romania (again) for 60,000 mt, and France (for the first time this season) managed to secure 180,000 mt. This latest foray into the market brings the Egyptian purchases by GASC to just over 2.5 million mt, which is around half of their projected total. Egypt as a whole is expected to purchase about 10 million mt, GASC account for half (or a touch over) of this amount.
- The Egyptian news was sufficient to provide some support to the wheat market as both corn and soybean prices looked to be suffering from a post WASDE hangover! The short covering spree, which provided immediate support following release of the USDA’s latest report, appears to be done and the market is now seeking direction.
- We are aware of the imminent release of the result of India’s first wheat export tender after the $40 reduction in floor price to $260/mt. Observers will watch with interest to see whether, or not, this will mark a new and serious exporter with substantial stocks to move prior to next harvest (Mar ’14) – the market impact will no doubt follow swiftly.
- Brussels maintained the export pace with export certificates totalling 663,609 mt granted this week. The season total now stands at 10.538 million mt, which is 3.323 million mt (46.1%) ahead of last year. We are 20 weeks into the season, and a simple mathematical projection to 52 weeks would show an annual export total of 27.4 million mt if the pace so far was maintained.
- Looking back, maybe today wasn’t as lacklustre as we firs thought! As we approach the close in Chicago wheat, corn and soybean markets are (just) tipping into negative territory.