US FOB Gulf corn basis offers were firm on Friday amid gains in the CIF barge market, while soyabeans were mostly steady, traders said. Barge freight rates continued to rise for the second straight day following a pick in grain movement on Thursday. Bids were 5-10 percentage points higher at St. Louis on the lower Mississippi River and the Illinois and Ohio rivers. "Like many others, we were trying to book barges yesterday," a river trader said, adding that farmer selling had slowed on Friday following a sharp drop in soya futures.
Hard red winter wheat basis values for new-crop supplies were higher in the CIF barge market amid a lack of farmer selling as KCBT futures tumbled on fund selling.
A trader said US HRW wheat was still not competitive with supplies from the Black Sea region despite the lower futures.
On Tuesday, Jordan bought a similar amount of optional origin hard wheat at $181.00 a tonne C&F, with likely suppliers including Russia and Kazakhstan.
Traders said US soft red winter wheat was also high priced despite sharply lower CBOT futures on Friday, adding that further declines were needed to boost competitiveness. They said US SRW wheat prices were still about $20 per tonne higher than supplies from the Black Sea region. Soyabean basis offers were mostly steady, but there was a lack of fresh export demand, traders said.
A trader said a decline in prices in Brazil and Argentina was drawing demand to the world's second and third largest soya exporters. There was talk of China buying Argentine soya. Corn basis offers were higher, supported by gains in the CIF market fuelled by higher barge freight.
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