EU Gains Markets - Tuesday Night Close

31/03/15 -- EU wheat traded mostly lower in the run-up to today's USDA planting intentions and stocks reports due for release at 17.00 BST. Chicago wheat staged an infamous "turnaround Tuesday" session, essentially erasing almost all the gains achieved on Monday, setting the tone for EU wheat.

At the finish, May 15 London wheat was down GBP2.25/tonne at GBP120.50/tonne; May 15 Paris wheat was EUR3.75/tonne lower at EUR187.50/tonne; Jun 15 Paris corn was unchanged at EUR163.75/tonne; May 15 Paris rapeseed was up EUR3.25/tonne at EUR367.00/tonne.

Oil World said that global oilseeds production will rise 5.5% this season to a record 523.3 MMT, led by an 11% increase in soybean output to a new all time high 312.8 MMT. Rapeseed production will fall slightly, down 1.7% to 68.4 MMT, they added.

Ukraine said that they'd exported 26.78 MMT of grains so far this season, including 9.7 MMT of wheat, just over 4 MMT of barley and 12.74 MMT of corn.

Early spring grain plantings in Ukraine are said to be 43% complete on more than 1 million ha, with spring barley accounting for the vast majority of that (780k ha) - winter wheat plantings are only 80k ha.

Winter grains in Ukraine have been fertilised on 83% of the planted area, along with 80% of the winter OSR area, say the Ag Ministry.

Russia's wheat exports have dropped off markedly since the new export duty came into force on Feb 1. Exports Feb 1 to Mar 25 were only 882 TMT in the case of wheat, down 240% versus 1.8 MMT in the same period a year ago.

Russia now appears to be concentrating on barley exports, as these are up massively at 932 TMT Feb 1 to Mar 25 as opposed to only 91 TMT a year ago.

Russia's season to date export totals are 19.35 MMT in the case of wheat (versus 15 MMT a year ago), with barley coming in at 4.27 MMT (2.08 MMT) and corn at 1.91 MMT (3.02 MMT).

The president of the Russian Grain Union has apparently said that it is “necessary” to cancel the wheat export duty before it expires on June 30, according to a story on Bloomberg.

Jordan are tendering for 100 TMT each of hard milling wheat and feed barley for Oct/Nov shipment.