US FOB Gulf corn and soyabean export premiums were weaker on Thursday due to a rally in futures prices and light farmer selling, traders said. Hard and soft red winter wheat basis offers held steady, supported by large carries in the futures markets providing an incentive to store wheat.
Corn export demand remains strong, due to limited supplies from other exporters and worries that prices may go even higher once the US harvest ends. China recently exported a large amount of corn but was not offering any supplies for shipment after March due to worries about domestic prices rising. China's curtailing of corn exports should boost sales of US corn, with many buyers wanting to secure corn supplies through June.
USDA said US corn export sales last week exceeded 1 million tonnes for the second week in a row. On Thursday morning, USDA reported exporters sold an unspecified destination 132,000 tonnes of US corn. USDA said US soyabean export sales last week were 640,200 tonnes, about the same level seen in the prior week. Top-buyer China purchased 335,900 tonnes, followed by Mexico.
Recent rallies in CBOT soya have hurt crushing margins in China but plants continue to need some fresh supplies. "With the board as high as it is, they continue to buy a few beans, but not large quantities," said a US soyabean trader.
Wheat export demand keeps dwindling due to rallies in prices. Prices have risen so much that even Japan, a faithful weekly wheat buyer, has passed on a tender. Up until now, buyers such as Japan had continued to purchase US wheat, despite futures reaching 10-year highs.
USDA export figures released on Thursday morning painted a bullish picture, with US wheat sales last week totalling 938,800 tonnes. Trader said that even excluding the 400,000 tonnes of wheat sold to Iraq, many of the remaining sales were for February/March shipment. Customers are avoiding spot purchases due to high prices. "They are already so well covered, I don't know when we're going to sell them more wheat," said a trader.
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