European wheat held firm on Thursday despite a sharp fall on US markets, helped by a drop in the euro against the dollar and by farmers' reluctance to sell their grain as they hold out for better prices. May milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext, unofficially closed 0.45 percent higher at 165.75 euros a tonne, with May wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 1.5 percent at $4.81-1/2 a bushel, pressured by disappointing weekly export sales and a technical sell-off.
On the cash market, the premium remained firm for nearby delivery in March and April in French ports, with sellers reluctant to offer their grain, brokers said. Some operators were speeding up purchases in port silos before a planned nationwide rail strike on Thursday next week, which they fear could be extended.
"Transport by lorry is overloaded and a strategic lock on the Seine river is damaged, so a strike would be one more obstacle," one said. Strategie Grains confirmed a gloomy outlook for EU wheat on the international market, cutting its forecast for the bloc's soft wheat exports this season for a fifth month running, citing poor shipments from the Baltic States and Poland.
However, it raised projected exports for next season to take account of a fall in US wheat competitiveness against EU origins and higher expected availabilities. In Germany, wheat cash market premiums in Hamburg were flat as new estimates indicated Germany's crop may decline only slightly this year despite poor autumn sowing weather and deep frosts in recent weeks. Standard bread wheat with 12 percent protein content for March delivery was offered for sale unchanged at 4 euros over Paris May.
Germany's 2018 wheat harvest will fall 1.1 percent on the year to 24.21 million tonnes, the country's association of farm cooperatives said on Thursday in its first forecast of the country's new crop. "The forecast says a lot of spring wheat will be planted, which could help compensate for the reduced winter wheat area," one German trader said. "The association also confirmed the general market view that the very deep frosts in late February do not seemed to have damaged crops seriously. Overall the expectations are growing that Germany will have a decent harvest this year."
Modest export demand was helping to keep internal market prices higher than in ports, with high maize prices again keeping feed wheat prices firm. Feed wheat prices in Germany's South Oldenburg market were again above milling wheat, with March onwards delivery offered for sale unchanged at 174 euros a tonne, with buyers seeking 173 euros.
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