Buying will be moderate in Japan and Taiwan this week with some South American and Chinese grains competing with US soyabeans and corn for sale in the Asian market, traders said on Monday. Japanese importers have so far covered roughly 80 percent of their corn needs for April-June shipments, which typically amount to about 4.0 million tonnes each quarter. In 2004 Japan bought roughly 16.2 million tonnes of corn, Finance Ministry data shows, with the bulk of the purchases for feed purposes.
Some traders said that buyers might take a little more time to complete their purchases for the quarter as they continue to watch freight rates and prices of Chinese corn and US. The United States is the top supplier to Japan, but some traders have recently bought Chinese corn, as it has become more competitive due to lower prices and freight rates.
One trader said the cost of buying corn from the United States was roughly $160 per tonne, including freight, compared to roughly $148 from China, although this would depend to some extent on which Japanese port the ship docked at.
Japanese buyers as a rule favour US corn, partly due to reasons of quality. "I think some buyers would consider a $10 difference in cost sufficient incentive to take the possible quality risk," the trader said.
He said some Chinese corn might have already come to Japan this year on vessels that were much smaller than the 55,000-80,000-tonne ships on which grains and other dry-bulk commodities are usually shipped.
Chinese corn shipments to Japan are also supported by data. Figures compiled by Beijing Xinhua Guoxin Information Services Co Ltd showed Chinese corn destinations so far this year have included Japan, both Koreas and Southeast Asia.
In Taiwan, the Members Feed Industry Group would tender on Tuesday for up to 60,000 tonnes of either Argentine corn, or US a trader said. The tender comes after the rival Great Wall Feed Group bought 60,000 tonnes of US corn last on Friday from Mitsui.
Taiwan imports of corn are expected to contract this year as livestock breeders reduce their stocks in response to relaxed rules on imports of foreign meats. Taiwan imported 4.86 million tonnes of corn last year, down 4.2 percent over the previous year, according to the latest government data.
In the soyabean market, some Japanese buyers are in the process of completing purchases for the second half of April. Japan's purchases of soyabeans now amount to less than 400,000 tonnes a month as imports have fallen with oilseed crushers reducing soyabean crushing volumes, due to an influx of cheap soyabean meal and oil from overseas.
Finance Ministry data shows that Japan's soyabean imports in 2004 dropped to 4.41 million tonnes. The lowest since 1991. Japanese buyers have started to buy Brazilian soyabeans, but a Japanese trader said that US oilseeds would likely still account for about 60 percent of the purchases in April.
The remainder would likely come from Brazil, the world's second largest soya exporter after the United States. Soya exports from Brazil typically begin in large quantities from March.
In Taiwan, the Kaohsiung division of the Breakfast Soyabean Procurement Association was also mulling a tender this week, with members likely to seek between 40,000 to 60,000 tonnes of either Brazil soya, or official and US said.
Details of the tender time and shipment dates were yet to be decided, the official said. Like Japan, Taiwan imported fewer soyabeans last year. Imports of soyabeans amounted to 2.03 million tonnes in 2004, down 17.4 percent, the latest government data shows.
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