Chicago Grains Close - Monday
29/02/16 -- Soycomplex: Beans closed with little change. The market is adjusting to the seasonal switch over in demand from US beans to South American origin. Weekly US export inspections were pretty decent at 1.049 MMT when viewed in the context of being 61% larger than they were on the same week in 2015, even if they were 32% lower than last week's total. Season to date inspections are now 8.2% behind last year. The USDA sees full season exports declining 8.3%, so we are no in line to hit that target. The January Argentine soybean crush is reported at 3.84 MMT, up from 1.79 MMT a year ago, making them aggressive sellers of meal. Mar 16 Soybeans closed at $8.53, down 2 cents; May 16 Soybeans closed at $8.61, down 2 1/2 cents; Mar 16 Soybean Meal closed at $259.30, up $2.10; Mar 16 Soybean Oil closed at 30.64, down 33 points.
Corn: The corn market closed lower for a fifth straight session. Weekly export inspections of 737,602 MT were down 19% from the previous week and 42.5% smaller than the same week a year ago. Season to date inspections of 14.76 MMT are now down 20.6% compared to this time last year. The USDA currently only sees these falling 10.2% year-on-year, so there's some lost ground to be made up here. The strong US dollar won't be helping. The head of Brazil's cereal exporting association Anec forecasts the country's corn exports down to 28 MMT in 2016 versus the record 30.75 MMT shipped out in 2015. APK Inform said that Ukraine's seaports exported 353.8 TMT of grain last week, of which almost all was corn (343.2 TMT). Russian spring plantings are underway early due to much milder than normal weather conditions. They are expected to plant and harvest another record corn crop this year. Mar 16 Corn closed at $3.53 1/2, down 1 cent; May 16 Corn closed at $3.57, down 2 1/2 cents.
Wheat: The wheat market closed narrowly mixed. Weekly export inspections of 371,934 MT were fair. Season to date inspections of 14.79 MMT are now 13% behind last year, although the USDA expects this to improve to only 5.5% behind by the end of the 2015/16 season. Seeing as that finishes in May, that may be unlikely. Saudi Arabia bought 880,000 MT of various origin wheat over the weekend. EU wheat is reported to be in generally good condition following a pretty mild winter. Ukraine's wheat exports via seaports dropped off to a smidgen last week. Russia's were still pretty robust at 523.3 TMT of the 623.4 TMT exported. Russia's 2015/16 total grain exports are now 1.9% ahead of last years pace at 24.65 MMT including 18.37 MMT of wheat. Algeria’s grain agency said that it had purchased at least 280,000 MT of durum wheat sourced mostly from Mexico and Canada. Mar 16 CBOT Wheat closed at $4.445, up 1 3/4 cents; Mar 16 KCBT Wheat closed at $4.45, up 1 cent; Mar 16 MGEX Wheat closed at $4.92, up 2 3/4 cents.
