US FOB Gulf soyabean basis offers were steady to higher on Monday with increased export demand due to a farmer strike in Argentina, traders said. Corn and wheat were mostly steady, traders said. US soyabean export demand has picked up for nearby shipment through the first half of April.
On Friday, USDA announced that China bought 113,000 tonnes of US soyabeans. Europe has also bought a few cargoes, traders said. "With the problems in Argentina, we are seeing slowly some people from China and Europe buying some cargoes in the US," said a soyabean trader. "It's nothing massive."
A farmer strike in Argentina over soya export taxes has closed the main port of Rosario and paralysed shipments by the world's third largest soyabean exporter. Some grain companies have declared force majeure and switched a few cargoes to the United States for loading. Wheat was seeing little export demand beyond talk of Iraq still needing to buy wheat and Turkey tendering for 250,000 tonnes of US milling wheat on Wednesday.
"There's not that much wheat left in the US and a new crop is coming soon," a trader said. "Buyers are waiting if they can afford to wait." Offers to sell HRW wheat with at least 11.5 percent protein were thin, with most exporters offering 11.0 percent protein.
Traders were skeptical that Turkey would buy any US wheat due to the fact that all $210 million worth of export credit guarantees have already been used. On Friday, USDA announced $45 million in additional funding for the GSM-102 program, in addition to the original $165 million. USDA starting taking applications for the additional funds at 9 am Monday and the credits were gone before lunch, officials said.
Exporters may have claimed the credits for sales of corn or sorghum, since the credit guarantees were not earmarked for any particular grain. USDA's GSM-102 program promotes the sale of US farm goods to developing countries by assuring lenders they will get paid even if a borrow defaults.
"Without the GSM available, it doesn't make sense to tender specifically for wheat," said a trader. "They were only tendering for US wheat because of the credits."