US FOB Gulf soyabean basis offers rose on Wednesday as China bought a few cargoes and futures prices closed down the daily trading limit of 50 cents a bushel on recession fears, traders said. Corn export premiums held mostly steady, despite the sharp fall in futures prices, with buyers waiting for futures prices to bottom out.
Wheat basis offers rose on support from upcoming tenders from Iraq and Jordan and futures prices falling 20 cents a bushel. US wheat will face competition in those tenders from cheaper supplies in Kazakhstan. Turkey bought 100,000 tonnes of Kazakhstan wheat in its tender on Wednesday. The lowest bid was $402.10 per tonne FOB and around $430, cost and freight. US wheat was offered $399.50 FOB Texas Gulf, or $507.50 c&f.
Jordan was expected to buy wheat from the Black Sea given the lower shipping costs. Traders believe that Iraq will buy US wheat due to the political and financial support it receives from America. "They always buy US, Canadian or Australian wheat," said a trader, noting that Canada and Australia have limited supplies. "AWB may offer them some Kazakhstan wheat but they'll buy a good bit from the US".
The Australian Wheat Board, or AWB Ltd, is the country's monopoly export desk as well as a publicly traded international grain exporter. The government has partially deregulated wheat exports with more changes to come this year. US soyabean export premiums got a boost from China returning to the market as lower freight and futures prices help to revive crushing margins.