- Egypt’s GASC purchased a further 240,000 mt of wheat, and Romania secured the lot. Black Sea origins were expected to win, and did not disappoint. One Ukraine offer looked value, but the shipping port made freight a cost disadvantage. Russian offers followed up with one French offer not too far away at around $7.00/mt above the winning sales.
- CBOT markets closed lower (again) with buyers sidelining and starving the market of bids, and we all know what happens when there are more sellers than buyers! Brazil’s CONAB added to their soybean crop, albeit a mere 0.22 million mt, but the impact is to see December stocks increase – to a three year high of 2 million mt. Their forecast for exports Jan/Dec was a whopping 45.3 million mt, which given the current pace is currently only just above last year when 43 million mt was exported, looks to be on the high side.
- Corn made new four year lows with the Dec ’14 contract closing below $4.00/bu for the first time since 2010. Fund exits from stale and owing positions continues amid griping over losses. Will they learn their lessons this year? CONAB’s estimate of the Brazilian Safrinha corn crop rose to 46.2 million mt, an increase of 500,000 mt from their June estimate. The total corn crop was estimated to be 78.2 million mt, an increase of 200,000 mt, marginally behind last year’s record crop.It is believed that government subsidies will be required to move the crop from Mato Grosso to port purely on account of the sheer size of output. In an election year will this happen?
- Global wheat priced dropped again on fierce competition to secure sales, as evidenced in the Egyptian tender. Fund selling was evident once again. Ukraine lost out, as we mention above, as did France. New business is needed by both parties and it appears that buyers are noticeable by their absence and prices are moving accordingly