Taiwan importers will be seeking shipments of US soyabeans and wheat this week, while corn purchases remain muted as fears of bird flu continue to stymie demand, traders said on Tuesday.
Buyers in key East Asian markets of Japan and South Korea, however, will be quiet this week following purchases in recent weeks, traders said.
Amid slack demand for feed among Taiwan's poultry breeders as fears mount about a possible outbreak of avian flu, the Great Wall Feed Group has skipped a regular 56,000-tonne corn cargo for year-end delivery, executives say.
Some traders say the group has instead opted for a shipment of around 10,000 tonnes via cargo containers to cut costs. Although officials denied they had sought any shipments, they admitted they were considering not importing any corn until possibly after Chinese New Year at the end of January.
"Poultry producers are cutting production due to bird flu, and we are looking at a cut in demand for corn by possibly as much as 10 to 15 percent," an official at the Members Feed Industry Group said.
"Although the fourth quarter is traditionally the peak season for feed, it doesn't feel like it this year."
Taiwan has yet to experience a serious outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the flu, which has killed more than 60 people and caused the destruction of millions of fowl.
In regular tendering, the Kaohsiung division of the Breakfast Soyabean Procurement Association will rotunda for up to 60,000 tonnes of US soyabeans on Wednesday after passing on offers in a tender last week, an official said.
Taiwan millers are also slated to hold a tender for 91,850 tonnes of US wheat in a tender on Thursday, an official said.
Activity in Japan this week was likely to be slow after last week's round of buying and ahead of a public holiday, traders said. Late last week, Japanese traders began buying corn for loading in January-March next year, after freight rates and grain prices showed signs of easing, industry sources said.
"I reckon about 800,000 tonnes of corn for loading in January-to-March period was purchased," one key corn trader said. "There's no need to keep buying, and the market is likely to be quiet this week."
Japan buys about one million tonnes of feed corn a month, so this means about 80 percent of its requirement for January has been covered, he said.
Japanese business will close on Thursday to mark Culture Day, a public holiday. In the soyabean market, Japanese buyers are seeking December loading soyabeans.
Japan is expected to buy fewer soyabeans for December compared with a year as Japanese oilseed crushers trim production of oil.
South Korean feed buyers are also expected to take a low profile in the corn market after purchasing three Panama cargoes more in the past two weeks via private negotiations, traders in Seoul said.
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