MOSCOW: Russian wheat export prices rose on Monday as a partial recovery in demand from importers lifted world prices more broadly, analysts said.
The price for Russian wheat with 12.5% protein content for free-on-board (FOB) delivery in April increased by $2 to $249 a metric ton, said Dmitry Rylko, head of consultancy IKAR. “You can see the emergence of some signs of demand with very low liquidity,” Rylko said.
The Sovecon consultancy placed prices for Russian wheat with the same protein content at between $247 and $250 a ton FOB, up from between $246 and $250 the previous week, citing higher Matif exchange values and stronger Romanian –Bulgarian offers.
Weekly wheat exports were estimated last week at 0.29 million tons, down from 0.31 million tons the previous week, Sovecon said.
Sovecon lowered its estimate of March wheat exports by 0.1 million tons to 1.5 million tons, significantly lower than the 4.8 million tons of exports in March last year.
Conversely, IKAR slightly increased its estimate for exports in March to 1.3 million to 1.4 million tons from 1.1 million to 1.3 million a week earlier.
IKAR said on Thursday it had cut its baseline 2024/25 wheat export forecast to around 41 million tons from 42.5 million tons.
Rail freight operator Rusagrotrans estimates March wheat exports at 1.4 million tons, of which about 400,000 tons were exported over March 1-13.
“Despite stabilising export prices and falling domestic prices, export margins remain sharply negative,” Rusagrotrans analysts noted.
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