EU Grains Drift Mostly Lower Amid Lack Of News

03/11/16 -- EU grains closed mostly lower amidst a general lack of fresh news.

At the finish Nov 16 London wheat was GBP1.60/tonne lower at GBP137.40/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was down EUR0.50/tonne at EUR162.25/tonne, Nov 16 Paris corn ended EUR0.75/tonne lower at EUR164.00/tonne and Feb 17 Paris rapeseed was EUR0.50/tonne higher at EUR395.50/tonne.

Defra reported that UK wheat usage by the milling industry (incl starch and bioethanol production) Jul/Sep was 1.8 MMT, up 10% versus the same period in 2015.

This is the largest volume of wheat milled during the first quarter of the season on records going back to 1997, they said.

The strong pace can be primarily attributed to historically low specific weights of this year's crop, suggesting a lower flour extraction rate, and increased bioethanol demand following the re-opening of a major plant (Ensus) in July 2016, they added.

With UK exports, aided by the weak pound, also having got off to a great start in 2016/17 that all adds up to good news for UK wheat demand. Tempering that news is of course the knowledge that carryover stocks at the end of 2015/16 getting carried over into the current marketing year were unusually large.

Ukraine reported that they'd exported 2.6 MMT of wheat in September, an 8% drop versus 12 months previously. Still, total exports so far this season (Jul/Sep) are up 13% year-on-year at 6.18 MMT.

Russia reported their 2016 grain harvest to be 95.2% complete at 120.3 MMT in bunker weight. That includes 98.2% of their wheat for a gross volume of 75.8 MMT so far.

The Russian corn harvest has now reached 10.1 MMT off 62.1% of the planted area.

Russian winter plantings for 2017 have reached 98.2% done on 17.0 million ha.

The USDA's FAS forecast Canada's 2016/17 wheat exports to fall 5% to a four year low 21 MMT as rain, snow and frost take their toll on quality, and possibly the total volume available this year.