South African farmers delivered 15,000 tonnes of maize to silos last week, raising total deliveries so far to 6.077 million from 6.062 million, data showed on Wednesday. The deliveries included 10,000 tonnes of white maize and 5,000 tonnes of yellow, the South African Grain Information Service said on its website www.sagis.org.za.
White maize deliveries rose to 3.908 million tonnes after falling to 3.898 million in the previous week, while yellow maize deliveries were at 2.169 million tonnes from 2.164 million.
Traders have previously said farmers need to increase deliveries to silos in order to improve the stocks position and prevent a supply crunch, but weekly deliveries have averaged between 4,000-15,000 tonnes since the beginning of the year. "At this point it's more than we expected but it's not going to have a material impact on the market," a Johannesburg dealer said.
Local maize prices have largely tracked international markets in recent sessions, taking direction from the Chicago Board Of Trade, which South African traders watch to stay competitive.
The trend continued on Wednesday, with maize futures largely staying flat in response to lower Chicago prices overnight and a weaker rand. The most active March white maize contract gained 0.17 percent to 1,809 rand a tonne, while March yellow maize fell 0.78 percent to 1,910 rand. July white maize fell 0.66 percent to 1,514 rand a tonne and yellow maize for that month was unchanged at 1,600 rand.
"I think that, all in all, today was just a consolidation inside yesterday's ranges. We opened slightly lower but we moved back inside yesterday's ranges," another trader said.
Movements in the rand had also affected prices and were likely to be a major factor for maize during the rest of the week following the Reserve Bank's interest rates decision expected on Thursday, traders said. "Some guys are waiting to see what interest rates are going to do tomorrow. If they leave (rates) unchanged the rand might weaken again and that might push the maize market higher again," the second trader said.