EU Grains End Mostly Higher

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 09:28 | Categorized as

07/12/16 -- EU grains closed mostly higher on the day. Rapeseed slipped from it's 2 1/2 year high on weaker Malaysian palm oil.

At the finish Jan 17 London wheat was up GBP0.60/tonne at GBP135.80/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was EUR2.50/tonne higher at EUR162.00/tonne, Jan 17 Paris corn ended EUR0.50/tonne firmer at EUR163.50/tonne and Feb 17 Paris rapeseed closed EUR2.00/tonne easier at EUR412.00/tonne.

Palm oil was lower in Malaysia on profit-taking and with no major demand festivals coming up. Still, it's too early to day that the bull trend appears to be over. One analyst today raised their forecast for crude palm oil prices from 2,450 ringgit to 2,725 (+11%). They cite the strong US dollar, low stock levels and the effects of the US bio fuels mandate as well as the seasonal low production cycle in Q1 of 2017.

Talk persists that French growers might end up planting 5% more wheat for 2017 due to failed/never planted autumn rapeseed.

French wheat exports to non-EU destinations in October were poor at 293,000 MT versus 348,000 MT in September (-16%). This was also the lowest October volume since 2007. Season-to-date non-EU exports are 32% lower at just 1.8 MMT from what is usually the bloc's largest foreign seller.

Total October French wheat exports, including those within the EU, were down 31% at 685,000 MT.

French wheat imports in October on the other hand more than doubled to 192,000 MT, taking the season-to-date total to 435,000 MT. Bulgaria was the largest supplier in October with 131,000 MT.

Ukraine said that they'd exported 18.8 MMT of grains so far this season, including 10.2 MMT of wheat, 4.6 MMT of corn and 4.0 MMT of barley.

The Russian Ag Ministry said that this year's harvest in bunker weight was 125.1 MMT so far off 97% of the planned area. They now foresee a final clean weight harvest of 117.5-118.0 MMT, using around a 6% reduction for cleaning/screening. That would potentially give them a wheat crop of around 71.5 MMT in clean weight and see barley production at around 18 MMT (USDA 72 MMT and 18 MMT respectively).

IKAR said that Russian November wheat exports were a record high for the month at 2.7 MMT.