US corn premiums held steady at the US Gulf Coast on Tuesday, underpinned by limited loading capacity and thin supplies in the pipeline, traders said. Soyabean and wheat premiums were also largely flat, they said. Trading of corn and soyabeans was quiet Tuesday as futures for each commodity were little changed at the Chicago Board of Trade.
There was talk that China bought two cargoes of soyabeans from South America, but that could not be confirmed. An ADM executive in a conference call on Tuesday said late soya seeding in Brazil could extend the US soya export program. Corn and soyabean loading remain unquoted until December.
Slow farmer sales of corn in the Midwest continue to support basis bids for the grain in the US CIF barge market even as the export book remains lacklustre due to high prices. Egypt's GASC on Tuesday passed on US wheat supplies, and instead bought wheat from Argentina, Australia and France for shipment in early January. USDA early on Tuesday announced private sale of 110,000 tonnes of US hard red winter wheat to unknown destinations.
China bought an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 tonnes of Argentine soyaoil in the last week, continuing heavy purchasing after Beijing lifted a de-facto ban on soyaoil imports from the South American country in October, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World said on Tuesday. CBOT wheat futures eased 1 percent, falling for the third straight session, following news of the GASC tender results, while corn and wheat futures fell for second day in a row ahead of Wednesday's US Federal Reserve meeting, in which traders expect a new round of monetary easing.