EU Grains Still Stuck In Sideways Trade
21/11/13 -- EU grains closed mixed, but mostly a tad higher with Nov 13 London wheat ending up GBP0.75/tonne firmer at GBP164.25/tonne and Jan 14 Paris milling wheat settling EUR01.25/tonne steadier to close at EUR204.00/tonne.
Feb 14 Paris rapeseed jumped EUR5.25/tonne to EUR379.00/tonne, whilst Jan 14 Paris corn closed EUR3.50/tonne higher at EUR177.50/tonne.
The market continues to meander sideways. Fresh news is thin on the ground. Sellers are relaxed that French and German wheat in particular will find the market coming to them from now one, even if Egypt did manage to unearth a couple of cargoes of Russian wheat to satisfy their demand this week. The Egyptians say that French offers were too high and that they will look elsewhere, domestically even, for their requirements between now and their 2014 harvest - but what else would you expect them to say?
Buyers on the other hand point to much cheaper corn values, and the recent re-emergence of India back on the wheat export market.
South Korea's MFG passed on a tender to import feed wheat, based on a cheapest offer of $300/tonne C&F versus corn priced around %60/tonne beneath those levels.
India sold 50 TMT of wheat to Bangladesh in a tender. Their state-owned MMTC offered 55 TMT of what for sale out of the west coast port of Paypavav for Dec 22-Jan 25 shipment. That's on top of the volume offered by another government backed company PEC yesterday and their well-supported tender to sell 340 TMT of wheat that closed on Monday.
Lebanon bought 20 TMT of milling wheat from Romania today, their second such purchase in a week.
Ukraine's corn harvest is now 87% complete at over 26 MMT, with yields averaging 6.2 MT/ha, according to the local Ministry. Their total grain harvest is now at 59.7 MMT off 96% of the planned area. They'd only harvested 44.3 MMT of grain this time last year.
APK Inform say that Ukraine exported 550 TMT of grain to Egypt in the Nov 1-15 period alone, including 138 TMT of wheat and 412 TMT of corn, as they step up purchases of the latter.
The Ukraine Farmers Association say that Nov 1-12 corn exports were 2 MMT, and that the country could export more than 4 MMT of grains this month.
The Russian Grain Union estimated the clean weight harvest there at 89 MMT, up 25.5% on last year. They see the 2013/14 exportable surplus at 25 MMT versus the less than 16 MMT exported in 2012/13.
Whilst EU wheat exports continue to run at record levels that are well ahead of a year ago, and with supplies of good quality milling wheat running low out of the east/FSU, then the market will remain supported even with corn offered at a significant discount.
