US FOB Gulf corn and soyabean offers held steady on Friday, but the market had a firm tone due to harvest slowdowns that were delaying the shipment of supplies down US rivers, traders said. Strength in the CIF market also lent support to FOB offers, a trader said.
Export elevators at the US Gulf, which have been dealing with dwindling stocks of both commodities for months, had expected supplies to be plentiful by now, but wet fields have kept many farmers sidelined this week. FOB wheat offers also were unchanged. Demand for US wheat was light on the export market as two weeks of gains have made prices less competitive on the global market.
Egypt's GASC bought 175,000 tonnes of French and Russian wheat in its latest deal. No US wheat was offered in the tender. FOB corn offers for October-November were thinly quoted at 125 cents over CBOT December futures. December offers were 120 over CBOT December. The US Agriculture Department said on Friday morning that private exporters reported the sale of 1.478 million tonnes of US corn to Mexico for delivery in the 2014/15 crop year. FOB soyabean October offers were steady at 170 cents over November futures, with November unchanged at 152 cents over CBOT November.
FOB Gulf SRW wheat for October-November-December held firm at 180/185/175 cents over CBOT December wheat. January-February-March offers were also steady - all quoted at 165 cents over March futures. HRW wheat basis values at the Texas Gulf were unchanged. October-November-December were offered at 205/200/200 cents over KCBT December futures.