EU Wheat Mostly Higher, But Stuck In Narrow Range

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 14:38 | Categorized as

13/12/11 -- EU grains finished mostly higher with Jan 12 London wheat up GBP1.00/tonne to GBP142.00/tonne and Jan 12 Paris wheat firming EUR1.50/tonne to EUR180.75/tonne. Both remain stuck in a very narrow range.

Concerns over European debt look set to hang over the market for some considerable time yet, capping potential gains. Yields on Spanish and Italian ten-year bonds were both on the rise again today and the pound rose to a ten-month high above 1.1875 against the euro.

The big news of the day was probably French wheat gaining a first success of the 2011/12 marketing year in the latest Egyptian wheat tender. The country's state buyer GASC bought 180,000 MT of wheat split three ways between Russia, Argentina and France.

The winning French wheat bid was priced at USD240.50/tonne, down USD4.00/tonne on last week's best offer, which actually came in cheaper on an FOB basis than the Russian wheat which was priced around USD3.50/tonne dearer. Russia does however have a freight advantage over France on wheat shipments to Egypt. The Argentine wheat proved once again to be the cheapest in the world at USD226.00/tonne.

Russian and Argentine wheat also won a 110,000 MT tender by Yemen.

At home, the latest figures from HM Customs & Excise show that the UK exported 291,500 MT of wheat in October, bringing the marketing year-to-date total to just over 850,500 MT, almost 30% down on this time last season.

The Dutch were the biggest buyers, taking 118,000 MT, with Spain our next biggest home with 75,000 MT.

Barley exports stand at 251,600MT in the first four months of the season, around 10% down on 2010/11. In contrast rapeseed shipments have more than doubled to 226,800 MT.