EU Grains End Mostly Lower

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 10:00 | Categorized as

21/09/16 -- EU grains closed mostly lower in light consolidation from yesterday's gains. Fresh news was relatively scarce.

At the close Nov 16 London wheat was down GBP0.50/tonne at GBP125.50/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was EUR0.50/tonne higher to EUR161.50/tonne, Nov 16 Paris corn was up EUR0.25/tonne at EUR162.00/tonne, Nov 16 Paris rapeseed was EUR2.25/tonne lower at EUR376.00/tonne.

The pound regained some lost ground against the US dollar after the Fed left US interest rates on hold and suggested that any rate rises would only be gradual. London wheat's gains yesterday were linked to sterling weakness versus the US currency.

Russia's IKAR raised their estimate for this year's corn harvest there from 14.0 MMT to 14.5 MMT (record), based on better than expected early yields.

Harvesting of that crop is 17.5% done so far at 2.7 MMT, with yields averaging 5.27 MT/ha versus 5.06 MT/ha a year ago.

Overall the Russian grain harvest now stands at 107.0 MMT off 85.4% of the planted area. Wheat harvesting is 91.2% complete at 72.7 MMT. Barley adds a further 18.4 MMT (93.4%) to the mix.

Russian plantings for the 2017 harvest are now reported at 58.4% complete on 10.1 million ha.

Kazakhstan's harvest is 88.6% done at 16.97 MMT.

Hungary is now gathering what they are forecasting to be a record 8 MMT corn crop. They've also harvested 1.8 MMT of rapeseed and 5.1 MMT of wheat. Wet weather means that only 40% of this year's wheat crop is suitable for milling.

There's rain in the 6-10 day forecast for Ukraine, which will be of benefit to growers there waiting to begin planting winter wheat.

Egypt's GASC overturned the recent move to buy only wheat with a zero tolerance to ergot, and immediately tendered for wheat for Oct 21-31 shipment with a 0.05% ergot tolerance. Results of that are expected tomorrow.