Wheat premiums hold steady as Egypt tenders

09 Oct, 2013

CHICAGO: Wheat export premiums at the US Gulf Coast were mostly unchanged on Wednesday amid steady demand from Brazil for hard red winter wheat and limited demand from other buyers for US soft red winter wheat, traders said.

* Egypt's GASC set a tender to buy wheat from global suppliers for Nov. 21-30 shipment, with results expected on Thursday. Traders said US SRW wheat prices remain too high relative to Black Sea region wheat to be competitive in the tender.

* Brazil has been buying spot vessels of HRW wheat following frost losses in its domestic crop and a lack of available wheat from Argentina.

* Corn and soybean export premiums at Gulf Coast terminals were steady, underpinned by moderate demand and limited nearby export loading capacity.

* Capacity for October and November was effectively sold out after big forward sales this summer, traders said.

* Demand for US corn was firm from Latin American destinations including Colombia and Venezuela for early 2014 shipments. But ample supplies of lower-cost Black Sea corn diluted demand for US corn from other buyers.

* A private Chinese trading firm bought 420,000 tonnes of US corn last week for delivery next year, an executive at the company told Reuters on Wednesday.

* US soybean demand from top importer China was light on Wednesday as most buyers' needs for October and November shipments were already filled. Demand for late December and January shipments was expected to be lighter than normal because soy shipped then would arrive during a low demand period in China after the Lunar New Year holiday, traders said.

* The US Department of Agriculture will not release weekly export sales data on Thursday for a second consecutive week due to the partial government shutdown.

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