US FOB Gulf wheat basis offers were steady Thursday after a flurry of export tenders in the last few days with Egypt buying cheap European wheat rather than higher-priced US wheat, traders said. FOB corn and soyabean offers were also steady as futures ticked higher on some planting projections released during the US Agriculture Department's outlook conference.
FOB Gulf SRW offers for February and March were unchanged at 115 cents per bushel over CBOT March, which closed steady at $5.27-3/4 per bushel. April was also unchanged at 115 cents over May futures. Despite the emergence on Tuesday of a surprise tender by Egypt's GASC for American wheat using a US government credit - Egypt passed due to high prices but bought 240,000 tonnes of French and Romanian wheat on Wednesday. The average sale price of $240.25 per tonne, C&F, for April 10-20 shipment was nearly $50 per tonne lower than the cheapest US offer on Tuesday.
US exporters also offered wheat in Wednesday's tender - both SRW and HRW. While Egypt typically buys SRW, the cheapest US offer was for HRW at $248.45, FOB, but still $23 above the winning French offer. FOB HRW offers for February and March were steady at 135 cents over KCBT March, which closed 3-1/2 cents lower at $5.44-1/2. April offers unchanged at 135 cents over May futures.
FOB Gulf soyabeans for February were unchanged at 105 cents over CBOT March soya, which ended 11-1/2 cents up at $10.07-1/4. Futures traders said values rose on USDA's lower-than-expected soyabean plantings - an outlook most cash grain analysts don't agree with. USDA's official planting forecast based on farmer surveys will be out March 31. FOB corn offers for March were unchanged at 70 cents over CBOT March, which closed up 6 cents at $3.89-3/4. April and May offers held at 63 cents over May futures. A strong dollar continues to hamper US corn and wheat trade more than soyabeans. But soyabean export data released on Friday will be watched closely for China fill-in business ahead of active Brazilian harvest shipping.
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