EU Grains Fall, London Wheat Hit By Rising Sterling

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 08:58 | Categorized as

05/09/16 -- EU grains closed mostly lower to start the week. US markets were closed for Labor Day so fresh news was limited.

At the close Nov 16 London wheat was down GBP1.75/tonne at GBP121.00/tonne, soon to expire Sep 16 Paris wheat was EUR3.50/tonne lower to EUR154.50/tonne, although other months were only down fractions of a euro. Nov 16 Paris corn was unchanged at EUR162.50/tonne, Nov 16 Paris rapeseed was EUR2.50/tonne firmer at EUR379.50/tonne.

London wheat again fared the worst of the bunch due to an unexpected bout of sterling strength this last few days following some better than anticipated economic news. For Nov 16 this was the lowest close in 2 months.

Paris rapeseed was the sole gainer on the back of significant palm oil price rises in the Kuala Lumpur market.

Jordan tendered for 100,000 MT of feed barley for Feb/Mar shipment. Algeria were in for a minimum 50,000 MT of soft wheat of optional origin, although they are expected to buy more (they purchased 520,000 MT last time).

Russia said that their 2016 grain harvest had now reached 93.4 MMT off 70.4% of the planned area. Wheat accounts for 64.5 MMT of that (73.8%) and barley an additional 17.1 MMT (85%). Their 2016 corn harvest is 1.3% complete at 37.4 TMT so far.

Russian growers meanwhile have also sown 19.7% (3.4 million ha) of the planned area for the 2017 harvest with autumn/winter grains.

Russian seaports exported 637.1 TMT of grains last week, up sharply from 203.1 TMT the previous week, including 595.2 TMT of wheat, said APK Inform.

Ukraine seaports shipped out a little more 661.4 TMT (up from 552.7 TMT the previous week), including 480.9 TMT of wheat, 14.2 TMT of corn and 166.3 TMT of barley, they added.