Chicago soybeans surrender gains on harvest pressure

BEIJING: Chicago soybean futures eased on Thursday, surrendering gains from the previous session, as abundant supplies from the US and South America weighed on prices. Corn and wheat futures also edged lower.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.05% at $9.90-6/8 a bushel, as of 0615 GMT. “South American weather is non-threatening with (soybean) world supplies projected at burdensome levels,” Bergman Grains Research said in a note.

Corn supplies are adequate with little reason for aggressive buyers to step in unless the wheat market starts to rally, it said. Corn fell 0.43% to $4.09-6/8 a bushel and wheat eased 0.74% to $5.69 a bushel.

Brazil’s soy planted area was seen rising 1.5% in the 2024/25 crop from the previous cycle to reach 47 million hectares, Rabobank said on Wednesday.

The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) raised its forecast for Argentina’s 2024/2025 soybean production to 52 million metric tons on the 17.2 million hectares harvested, as producers shifted to more soy from corn over fears of the impact of corn stunt, continued low prices, and expected dry conditions.

US soybean crop is also plentiful, with the USDA saying that US soybean harvest was 89% complete, ahead of the five-year average of 78%, with a record-large 2024 crop.

USDA has confirmed private sales of 132,000 metric tons of US soybeans to China, another 132,000 tons of US soybeans to unknown destinations and 273,048 tons of US corn to unknown destinations for shipment in the 2024/25 marketing year.

China, the world’s biggest buyer of soybeans, is willing to cooperate more closely with Russia in the soybean industry, its agriculture ministry said.

In Ukraine, its new system of minimum export prices for the country’s key grain and oilseed shipments is likely to be operational at the beginning of December, Ukrainian agriculture minister Vitaliy Koval said.

Commodity funds were net buyers of Chicago Board of Trade soybeans, soyoil and wheat futures contracts on Wednesday, traders said.