EU Wheat Rises, Egypt Back In The Market Again
02/09/13 -- EU grains closed firmer, although aside from news of a second wheat purchase within a week from Egypt over the weekend, fresh news was lacking in light of US markets being shut for the Labor Day holiday.
At the close Nov 13 and Jan 14 London wheat were GBP1.15/tonne firmer at GBP158.65/tonne and GBP160.90/tonne respectively. Nov 13 Paris wheat finished the day EUR2.75/tonne firmer at EUR190.00/tonne (around GBP161.35/tonne equivalent).
Better than expected UK manufacturing data saw the pound rise close to 1.56 versus the dollar and 1.18 against the euro, depressing London wheat a little.
Egypt's GASC bought a 355 TMT mixture of Russian, Romanian and Ukraine wheat in a surprise weekend tender, their seventh since they began buying at the beginning of July after a 4 month sabbatical. They booked three cargoes of Russian wheat, two of Romanian origin and one from Ukraine, all at prices around USD265/tonne C&F for Oct 11-20 shipment.
Those prices work out at around USD18/tonne beneath the cheapest French offer when freight is factored in. Excluding freight French wheat was offered at USD263/tonne FOB, which was around USD10/tonne above offers out of Russia and Romania and some USD13/tonne over the successful Ukraine bid.
Ukraine customs data shows that they exported 500 TMT of grains last week, split 315 TMT of wheat and 194 TMT of barley. That's down from 580 TMT the week before. The top destination was Thailand, taking 105 TMT, followed by South Africa with 79 TMT and Spain on 66 TMT.
Kazakhstan's rain-stalled grain harvest now stands at 2.323 MMT off 11.5% of the cropped area, with yields averaging 1.28 MT/ha. This time a year ago they'd harvested 6.14 MMT, so a direct yield comparison with last year (0.76 MT/ha) is probably not as revealing as it might look at first glance.
Bangladesh picked up a best priced quote of USD282.66/tonne in a tender to import 50 TMT of wheat for Sep/Oct shipment. They plan to buy around 850 TMT of wheat this year on the international markets, versus only 350 TMT in 2012/13 to replenish state stocks, say the Ministry.
The Czech Ag Ministry say that the rapeseed harvest there is 94% complete, with yields "much better than expected" despite the flooding earlier in the season. Yields are up around 20% on year ago levels and they should be in for their largest OSR crop ever, the Ministry add.
Reports suggest that a second freeze within a month caused further damage to the Brazilian wheat crop in the southern state of Parana last week. It is estimated that 55-60% of the wheat that was in a sensitive stage of heading and flowering experienced the recent round of freezing temperatures on Wednesday night. That could cut Parana's wheat crop to below 2 MMT, analysts say, and the state normally provides around half of the national crop.
