Export premiums for soyabeans shipped from the US Gulf Coast were flat on Monday, anchored by seasonally slowing demand and weak CIF barge basis values, traders said. Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures rallied on Monday as the government confirmed buying by China and strong weekly export loadings. The rally dragged spot CIF barge basis values down by as much as 5 cents a bushel.
The US Department of Agriculture on Monday confirmed private sales of 426,000 tonnes of US soyabeans to China for 2016/17 shipment. Despite the large sales confirmation, which some traders said was in-house trades by multinational exporters global demand is beginning to shift to South America. Recent waves of old-crop soyabean sales by Brazilian farmers and expectations for a large early harvest have dragged down prices in Brazil.
That has made Brazilian beans much more competitive on the world market, particularly for early 2017 shipments, traders said. Corn export premiums at the Gulf were mostly unchanged after firming late last week on an uptick in demand from South Korea as prices fell to two-month lows. US corn is competitively priced against corn from other origins through February or March, but cheap feed wheat has limited demand, traders said.
December US soyabean shipments were offered at about 42 cents a bushel over CBOT January futures, which closed 16 cents higher at $10.43-1/2 a bushel. December corn shipments were offered at about 55 cents over CBOT March futures, which closed 12 cents higher at $3.59-1/4 a bushel. Offers for December soft red winter wheat shipments were about 75 cents over CBOT March futures, which settled 4 cents higher at $4.08-1/4 a bushel. Spot hard red winter wheat cargoes were offered at 110 cents over March futures, which closed 1/4 cent lower at $$4.08-1/2 a bushel.