US FOB Gulf corn and soyabean basis offers fell on Thursday after a CBOT rally pressured prices in the interior barge market, while wheat was steady to higher, traders said.
The price traders were willing to pay for barges loaded with soyabeans and corn tumbled as soya futures rallied and corn futures hit a two-week high.
Soybean FOB export offers followed, dropping 4 to 5 cents a bushel, although traders were uncertain about prices due to a lack of trades in the barge market.
Soybean export premiums could rebound due to recent increases in barge freight and farmer protests in Brazil paralysing the country's soyabean exports, traders said.
The futures market rally sparked some farmer selling of soyabeans. Farmers were also selling ahead of USDA's supply and demand report on Friday morning - the first estimates for 2006/07 ending stocks.
Ethanol demand is seen eating into US corn supplies, while two years of large soyabean crops and slow exports are seen leading to a record soya supply, analysts said.
USDA said soyabean export sales last week were a respectable 389,100 tonnes old-crop. Traders said China bought one cargo, or 61,000 tonnes.
Corn export premiums also dropped, but not as much as soyabeans.
Basis offers fell no more than a penny a bushel in most cases, underpinned by brisk export demand and rising barge freight.
USDA said corn export sales last week were a strong 1.1 million tonnes old-crop. The biggest buyers were unknown destinations, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.
State-run Taiwan Sugar Corp passed on its tender for US corn and soyabeans due to high prices, said traders in Asia.
Wheat export premiums were steady to higher amid hopes of selling US wheat to Iraq and India. Routine purchases by Japan, Mexico, Nigeria and other countries also supported higher prices, traders said.
USDA said wheat export sales last week were 33,000 tonnes old-crop and 380,700 new-crop. For old-crop, Nigeria was the top buyer with 45,000 tonnes, followed by Yemen. Those purchases were offset by Iraq cancelling 100,000 tonnes and Japan cancelling 86,300 tonnes. However, Japan bought 100,700 tonnes of new-crop wheat and Mexico booked 157,600 tonnes.
The US Plains hard red winter wheat belt saw freezing temperatures overnight, which may have further damaged the crop. Farmers in central and southern Oklahoma should begin harvesting wheat in about two weeks, traders said.
Rain in the Midwest may make conditions ripe for vomitoxin in the SRW wheat crop, traders said. Colder weather in the Midwest is slowing corn and soyabean planting and not helping the seed that's already in the ground.
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