US FOB Gulf corn basis offers were lower for nearby shipments on Monday amid sluggish export demand while soyabeans were mostly steady, traders said. Barge freight rates remained under pressure from a lack of grain movement as farmers planted their corn crop, taking advantage of the clear skies across much of the Midwest. Bids for freight this week were unchanged at St. Louis on the lower Mississippi River and the Illinois River. Bids were off 5 percentage points on the lower Ohio River, traders said.
Hard red winter wheat basis offers were higher, supported by export demand and slow farmer selling, traders said.
Traders said a train-load of HRW wheat traded at 85 cents a bushel premium the KCBT May, but added that the protein content ranged from 11 percent to 14 percent.
"A train traded in Oklahoma at 85 cents over but it had 11 and 14 percent protein wheat," a trader said, adding that FOB offers for 11 percent protein wheat were around 80 cents over.
Traders also said that 55,000 tonnes of hard wheat purchased by Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) at its weekend tender was hard red spring wheat.
There was some speculation that GASC had purchased hard red winter wheat. "They bought spring wheat for shipment through the St. Lawrence (seaway)," a trader said, adding that the price was lower than that quoted for HRW wheat in the tender.
GASC also bought 60,000 tonnes of French wheat at $129.97 per tonne, and 30,000 tonnes of Russian at $125.00 per tonne for May 21-31 shipment. The US spring wheat was priced at $143.23 per tonne, compared with $144.33 for HRW wheat.
Soyabean basis offers were mostly steady, supported by slow movement but fresh demand remained thin, traders said.
A trader said at least two Panamax vessels were loading soyabeans for China at the US Gulf but added that those were likely to be last for the season.
"After that the season is over," he said.
Brazil and Argentina typically reign as the world's premier suppliers of soyabeans from April until September, when the crop is harvested in the United States.
Corn basis values were lower for nearby shipments, weighed by slack demand, especially from top buyer Japan.