Lunchtime News Snippets

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 12:21 | Categorized as

14/05/13 -- The overnight Globex grains are mixed, trading a cent or two either side on corn and wheat and 4-6 cents higher on beans.

Chinese think tank CNGOIC say that the country will produce a record 214 MMT of corn this year, up 2.8% on last year despite delayed plantings due to wet and cold weather. That's 2 MMT more than the USDA said on Friday.

They also forecast the Chinese wheat crop up 1.1% to a record 121.9 MMT this year. OSR output will rise 0.7% to 14.1 MMT and soybean production will fall 3.9% to 12.3 MMT, they reckon. They're Chinese, so these numbers possibly aren't worth the computer screen they're written on.

More reliable though may be customs data numbers that show China's Jan/Mar rapeseed oil imports were up more than 69% to over 387 TMT.

The Russian Ministry said grain exports in April were 430 TMT. These will fall a little to around 350-400 TMT in May, before rising to around 5-600 TMT in June, they estimate.

Dry weather has slowed the pace of Russian plantings markedly. Spring grains have been sown on 12.5 million hectares, or 41% of the planned area, which is about the same pace as a year ago, say the Ministry. On April 19 spring grains were sown on an area of over 100% more than twelve months ago.

Japan is in for 147,620 MT of a mixture of US, Australian and Canadian milling wheat in a routine tender.

South Korea has bought 60 TMT of optional origin corn for September shipment along with 53 TMT of optional origin feed wheat for August shipment. South America might provide the corn and the Black Sea possibly the wheat I'd guess.

Jordan are in for 150 TMT of wheat and 100 TMT of feed barley. Ditherers.

The Ukraine Weather Centre say winter crops in are good condition despite dryness in east, moisture reserves are good and rain is expected in the "near future". It's currently raining in western Ukraine apparently.

Michael Cordonnier says that Brazilian farmers may cut full season corn acreage for the 2013/14 harvest due to price considerations and plant more soybeans. They may then follow full season beans with a with a shorter maturity crop such as sorghum, sunflower or even canola, he says.

Note that May CBOT contracts go off the board today.