Australian grain handlers have won high premiums at auctions of shipping slots for this marketing season, evidence of strong demand for the country's high-quality wheat despite a grain glut elsewhere in the world. The world's fourth-largest wheat exporter usually gets higher prices than its rivals for top-quality milling grain, but this year could be even better because supply of the best grades will be tight after rain in recent months damaged harvests in the northern hemisphere.
CBH Group, the country's biggest grain handler, received a record high premium of A$27.99 ($31.9) per tonne at an auction this week for shipping grain from Western Australia. In South Australia, a smaller wheat-growing region where competition is less intense, the premium won by Viterra, another bulk grain handler, at its most recent auction in June was
A$48.38. Historical comparisons were not available because of a change to the auction system, but that was well up on earlier in the year. "They have received handsome premiums as there is strong appetite to get access to Australian shipping slots," said Simon Clancy, a director at IKON Commodities in Sydney. "Australia will be a source of good-quality milling wheat this year, provided we don't get rains at harvest," he added. The sum paid by exporters to the grain handlers acts as a deposit, which is returned if they use the allocated slots. Exporters lose the deposit for any unutilised capacity.
The demand for shipping wheat from Australia, a major supplier to the world's top buyers such as Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, comes despite a global oversupply that has dragged benchmark prices down to their lowest in more than four years. Chicago Board of Trade wheat has lost more than 30 percent in the past two quarters. Last month the International Grains Council raised its forecast for the 2014/15 global wheat crop by 4 million tonnes to a record 717 million tonnes, largely reflecting an improved outlook in the European Union and Ukraine. However, unseasonable rain at harvest time has limited the volume of top-grade wheat available for making bread or noodles from the United States, France, Germany and Ukraine.
In contrast, Australia is on track to produce higher-quality wheat this year as a dry spring has boosted the protein content in its grain, although it is also expected to give lower yields. According to a Reuters poll, Australia's wheat production this year is expected to drop 11 percent to 24 million tonnes because of the dry weather in some of the main producing states. The harvest is due to start by the end of this month.
HIGHER PREMIUM FOR QUALITY "If you look at the balance sheet, it is very bearish for feed-grade supplies, but high-protein wheat is much tighter," said Paul Deane, an agricultural economist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne. US high-protein wheat is already trading at a bigger premium to lower-quality wheat from France and Argentina.
And Australian wheat is fetching a premium of $10-$15 a tonne over European and North American cargoes, traders said. CBH awarded 13.1 million tonnes of capacity at this week's auction out of a total of 14.1 million tonnes offered, a company official said. Wheat prices on the east coast are trading above international export prices, which may make it difficult for exporters to ship grain out of that region. No wonder then, that trading companies have booked as much capacity as possible in Western Australia.
"We have seen dry weather impacting crops in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, so big exporters are gravitating towards Western Australia," said Don Campbell, head of trading at CBH Group. The timing of the auction was opportune, he added, since by then it was fairly clear that the size of the grain crop in Western Australia would be around 12.5 to 13 million tonnes.
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