US FOB Gulf corn basis offers were mostly steady on Thursday, underpinned by steady export demand and limited farmer selling, traders said. May offers were ill defined as some exporters were unwilling to quote prices amid uncertainty about near-term supplies at the US Gulf. Farmer selling of old-crop corn has been very light in recent weeks due to declining prices.
Chinese corn production is expected to jump 7.6 percent this season to a record 232 million tonnes, according to the official CNGOIC think-tank, while imports are expected to drop by half to 2 million tonnes. FOB soyabean basis offers at the Gulf were steady to firm amid better-than-expected old-crop export demand. Both soft and hard red winter wheat FOB basis offers stabilised after slumping over recent days amid higher futures prices and weak export demand, traders said.
Russia's Agriculture Ministry proposed a new grain export duty pegged to the export price from July 1. FOB corn offers for June loadings held at 78 cents over CBOT July futures, which closed 5-1/4 cents lower at $3.61-1/2. July offers were unchanged at 72 cents over futures. FOB Gulf soyabean offers for May loadings were about 2 cents higher at 90 cents over CBOT May, which closed 9 cents lower at $9.81-1/2. June offers were 90 cents over CBOT July futures. FOB SRW wheat basis offers at the Gulf were unchanged at 75 cents over CBOT July futures, which closed 6-1/2 cents lower at $4.72-3/4. At the Texas Gulf, FOB HRW wheat for May was offered steady at 120 cents over KCBT July, which closed 3-3/4 cents higher at $4.99-3/4.