Soyabean export premiums for shipments from the US Gulf Coast held about steady on Thursday on rising supplies from the US harvest and moderate demand, mostly from China, traders said. Spot CIF soyabean barge basis values weakened on Thursday as newly harvested soyabeans flooded the market. Exporter demand was concentrated in November and December, traders said.
Chinese importers booked at least two Gulf soyabean cargoes at midweek this week, traders said. That followed very active buying by the world's top soya importer last week, with a net 2.1 million tonnes booked for 2016-17 shipment, according to US Department of Agriculture data.
The USDA also confirmed private sales of 192,000 tonnes of US soyabeans for delivery to unknown destinations in the 2016-17 season. Corn and wheat export premiums were unchanged. A stronger US dollar limited fresh buying in the export market. The greenback hit a seven-month high against a basket of currencies on Thursday.
Consultancy Strategie Grains lowered again its estimate of European Union soft wheat production and exports this season due to adverse crop weather, but raised its outlook for the ongoing EU maize harvest. Egypt's GASC bought 120,000 tonnes of Russian wheat for shipment November 21-30. No US wheat was offered in the tender. Exporter offers for October shipments were not quoted as export loading capacity was tight and buyers are mostly seeking deferred shipments, traders said. November soyabean offers were around 70 cents a bushel over Chicago Board of Trade November futures, which closed 6 cents lower at $9.75-1/2 a bushel.
Spot corn shipments were offered at about 65 cents over CBOT December futures, which closed 6-1/2 cents lower at $3.61 a bushel. Nearby SRW wheat shipments were offered around 95 cents over CBOT December futures, which closed 3-1/4 cents lower at $4.17 a bushel. October HRW wheat cargoes were offered at 130 cents over December futures, which closed 2-1/4 cents lower at $4.23 a bushel.