US FOB Gulf soft red winter wheat basis levels weakened on Thursday as the lack of fresh export business weighed on the market, traders said. New-crop supplies continued to come on the market as farmers surged through the SRW wheat harvest in the Midwest. That put further pressure on the market as supplies increased.
Some business was noted in the CIF Gulf SRW wheat market, where July traded at 24 cents over CBOT September futures and October-November-December traded at 50 cents over December.
FOB Gulf corn and soyabean values were firm as farmers continued to hold on to old-crop supplies. Some corn country movement was noted Thursday, but volumes were not large.
CIF Gulf corn bids were steady against firm offers, and September corn barges traded at 37 cents over September futures.
CIF Gulf soyabeans were mostly steady. July soyabean barges traded late Wednesday at 30 cents over the August, and January traded Thursday at 42 cents over January.
There was market talk that China bought a cargo of soyabeans out of South America, but that was not confirmed.
Japan's Agriculture Ministry said Thursday it has discovered a fourth US feed grain cargo tainted with Bt-10 biotech corn.
Samples from the US feed corn cargo tested positive for traces of Bt-10, a genetically modified (GMO) corn strain made by Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta AG that has not been approved for distribution. The ministry did not name the importer. Traders said the news had no direct impact on the US Gulf market.
Meanwhile, a Japanese company bought South African corn as an alternative to US supply to avoid the risk of receiving cargoes tainted with Bt-10 corn, and others may follow suit unless the issue is resolved soon, Japanese traders said.
The company bought about 100,000 tonnes of South African corn for shipment in the third quarter of this year for delivery to Japanese feed or starch makers, they said.