Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade rose on Monday amid ongoing export business with China, concerns about the South America crop and the 2008 battle for US acres, traders said.
"It's the triumvirate we haven't bought enough acres in Brazil; the Chinese are buying everything; and we've got to buy 9 million acres away from corn next spring," said Charlie Sernatinger, analyst with Fortis Clearing Americas.
Also a worry is the increasing dryness in the Argentine soya region, traders said. The world's No 3 soya producer is expected to be dry most of this week with temperatures climbing into the 80s to 90s degrees Fahrenheit, a DTN Meteorlogix forecaster said.
January soyabeans closed 3-1/2 cents higher at $11.03-3/4 per bushel after a choppy session rising to a 34-year high in a spot contract of $11.14 overnight then sliding to $10.92 when crude oil fell about $1.50 a barrel. The market was also pressed by softer Midwest basis bids. Basis levels weakened after farmer sales picked up after CBOT rallied to historical prices on Friday and again overnight.
CBOT December soyaoil ended 0.02 higher at 46.69 cents per lb in volatile trading, hitting a 33-year top overnight then sliding during the day session when crude oil tumbled. Soyaoil was pulled higher late when soyabeans recovered and crude oil moved off its lows. The soya markets have been tracking energy prices given the expanding biofuels industry that uses soyaoil as a feedstock to produce soya biodiesel.
Soyameal closed higher, tracking the up-and-down moves in soyabeans. December meal ended 90 cents up at $292.90; deferreds were 50 cents to $2.60 higher. Commodity funds bought about 3,000 soyabean contracts, 2,000 soyameal and 3,000 soyaoil, traders said.
Commercials were among the sellers of soyabeans, including ADM, Bunge, Tenco, Iowa Grain and MF Global, traders said. USDA reported that 32.238 million bushels of soyabeans were inspected for export last week, above estimates for 26 million to 31 million bushels.
More than half the shipments were earmarked for China, the world's top soya buyer. On a supportive note for global vegoil export business, Indonesia raised its base export price for crude palm oil to $862 a tonne from $784 a tonne. Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a record high overnight, lifted by stronger crude oil prices before closing mixed on profit taking.