SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures slid on Friday, with the market poised for a weekly decline, as slowing demand from top importer China and lacklustre US weekly exports weighed on prices.
Corn was unmoved, on track for its biggest weekly decline in eight months amid forecasts of favourable weather in the US Midwest that would allow planting to accelerate.
“Weak export sales due to the record soybean crop from Brazil helped to pressure (on soybean prices) as Brazil producers are active sellers and storage is in very tight supply due the record corn crop expected soon,” commodities research firm Hightower said in a report.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) gave up 0.3% at $14.63-1/2 a bushel, as of 0348 GMT.
Corn was flat at $6.26 a bushel, while wheat rose 0.2% to $6.81-1/4 a bushel. Soybeans have lost 2.5% this week, after gaining marginally last week, while corn is down 6%, on track for its biggest weekly drop since July. Wheat is little changed for the week.
The US Department of Agriculture said weekly soybean export sales totalled 103,000 tonnes, missing estimates.
However, China’s soybean imports from the United States rose 43% in March, data showed on Friday, as harvesting delays in top supplier Brazil prompted buyers to seek more US beans.
Brazilian soybean port premiums have fallen to historical lows in recent days amid lukewarm Chinese demand while the country reaps a record crop.
The premiums fell to their lowest point in 19 years, according to data from Cepea/Esalq, a research center at the University of Sao Paulo, going as low as -200 basis points per bushel this week in ports like Paranagua for May shipments, surprising some by the magnitude of the decline.
Weather in parts of the US Midwest is forecast to turn drier and warmer, allowing farmers to plant their crops.
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In the US southern plains, there are expectations of much-needed rain, which is likely to improve the condition of the winter crop.
Inspections of ships carrying Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports were expected to continue under a UN-brokered deal, though Kyiv faces a struggle to secure an extension of the deal with Moscow.
Russia’s foreign minister, however, said that almost nothing has been done to address Moscow’s concerns, when asked about the future of the Black Sea grains deal.
A European Union plan on Wednesday to permit Ukrainian grains to continue being transported across five countries in the east of the bloc for onward export reduced the risk of a halt to Ukrainian shipments via the EU.
Commodity funds were sellers of CBOT grain and soy futures contracts on a net basis on Thursday, traders said.
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