EU Grains Mostly A Little Firmer In Rebound From Lows
21/01/14 -- EU grains closed mostly a little firmer on a modest rebound from prices hitting contract lows in yesterday's trade.
Jan 14 London wheat ended GBP0.50/tonne higher at GBP150.50/tonne, although Nov 14 fell GBP0.50/tonne to GBP143.90/tonne. Mar 14 Paris wheat finished up EUR1.50/tonne to EUR192.25/tonne, Mar 14 Paris corn rose EUR1.25/tonne to EUR173.50/tonne, whilst Feb 14 Paris rapeseed fell EUR2.25/tonne to EUR359.00/tonne.
With America just waking up from a long weekend fresh news remained very thin on the ground.
Russia only bought 5,400 MT of grain for the intervention fund in it's first purchase of 2014. That make the total bought so far in 2013/14 to less than 550 TMT compared to an original government target of 5-6 MMT.
It will be interesting to see if that is the start of a trend,
SovEcon said that Russia would export 22 MMT of grains in 2013/14, up 35% versus 16.3 MMT a year previously.
They estimated Russia's Jan corn exports at 500 TMT in January versus the December record of 682 TMT, but still a very healthy amount.
Russia's Jan wheat exports will total 500-600 TMT versus 194 TMT a year ago. Their barley exports will total 50-90 TMT versus 53 TMT in 2012, they added
Kazakhstan'a Ag Ministry said Kazakhstan's 2013 grain crop was 18.98 MMT in clean weight versus the 2012 crop of only 12.90 MMT.
Again there is talk of FSU winter wheat being susceptible to winterkill due to a sudden drop in temperatures even though the majority of crops in the region are currently rated 92-95% good/satisfactory.
Temperatures in Paris look to be in the mid-40′s all week with light showers expected. Germany will dip down into the mid-30′s to low-40′s with a chance of light snow.
China said that it had imported 5.5 MMT of wheat in the 2013 calendar year, an increase of almost 50% versus the same period in 2012.
