Spot basis bids for soyabeans were steady to firm around the US Midwest on Tuesday while corn bids were mostly unchanged, dealers said. Cash bids for soyabeans rose by 16-1/2 cents per bushel at one location in Illinois where dealers were trying to boost supplies to load some containers at the facility.
Bids have risen by 22 cents a bushel at that location this week but farmers in that area still were not interested in selling at current levels, a dealer said.
Soyabean bids were only up by about 2 cents per bushel at other locations. Most of the increases came at processors and elevators in Iowa.
Farmer selling was mostly slow although dealers reported some scattered movement from producers that needed cash. Selling has slowed considerably in the past month as weakness in the futures market cut into cash prices farmers had grown accustomed to receiving.
Before committing to any more sales, most farmers were hoping for prices to rally back to highs reached earlier in the year. Some producers have told dealers they would be interested in selling if levels reached $4 per bushel for corn and $8 per bushel for soyabeans.
Shipping costs fell on Midwest rivers as warmer weather allowed for easier navigation of stretches that had been blocked by ice during the winter.
Bids for barges were at 190 percent of tariff on the Mississippi River at St. Louis, a 10 percentage point drop from Monday's level. Barge bids dropped 15 percentage points to 260 percent of tariff on the Illinois River. On the lower Ohio River, barge bids fell 5 percentage points to 225 percent of tariff.
At the Chicago Board of Trade, the May corn futures contract closed up 7-1/4 cents, or 1.8 percent, at $4.05-1/4 per bushel.
CBOT May soyabean futures rose 5-1/4 cents to $7.64-3/4 a bushel, underpinned by prospects for a cut in US soya plantings this spring. The May wheat futures contract gained 7-3/4 cents to close at $4.62-3/4 per bushel.