US FOB Gulf corn basis offers were mostly lower on Wednesday amid declines in barge freight rates, while soyabeans were mostly steady, traders said.
Barge freight fell further as demand from shippers dried up with the soyabean harvest nearing completion, brokers said.
Freight bids on the Mississippi River at St. Louis fell 50 percent of tariff to 500 percent, and 25 percent of tariff to 550 percent and 500 percent on the Illinois and Ohio rivers.
Much of the attention in the grain market was focused on news that Iraq bought 1 million tonnes of wheat from the United States for delivery starting December.
A senior Iraqi trade official said Iraq bought the wheat from Columbia Grain and Louis Dreyfus at $190 per tonne FOB. "The FOB terms save us a lot of money," the official said.
Traders said there was speculation that the cargo would primarily be hard red winter wheat. "There is some talk that there will be some soft white wheat too," a trader said. "The talk is that the white wheat will go out of the PNW."
The Pacific Northwest is a key export point for soft white wheat grown in the Northern Plains, and Columbia Grain's operations are primarily situated in the Pacific Northwest.
Traders said they were awaiting USDA confirmation of the sale. A sale of 100,000 tonnes or more to a buyer in a single day must be reported to the USDA by the next business day.
Corn basis offers were lower, weighed by declines in barge freight rates, which also pressured CIF prices. Traders said there was also pressure from corn movement.
Soyabean basis offers were mostly steady, but export demand was sluggish, traders said. There was talk that top importer China was seeking South American soya, but it could not be confirmed, the traders said.
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