Barge shipping delays on the Illinois and lower Ohio rivers due to lock repairs are further supporting spot soyabean bids, traders said. Bids for northern-origination soya barges arriving at the Gulf over the next week were around 50 cents a bushel above Chicago Board of Trade November futures. That compared with bids of 46 cents over futures for barges loaded anywhere on the river system in the first half of the month and trades at 43 cents over futures for last-half loadings. October soya barges traded as high as 40 cents over futures.
FOB Gulf soyabean basis offers remain underpinned by strong demand from China, with US shipments competitive with Brazilian supplies on the world market. October and November offers were around 70 cents above futures. The US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday confirmed private sales of 132,000 tonnes of new-crop US soyabeans to unknown destinations. The agency has confirmed 748,000 tonnes of new-crop soyabean sales to China and unknown destinations in the past three trading days.
Corn basis values at the Gulf were mostly flat to lower on muted demand, with many export terminals focusing on shipping soyabeans. Bids for early September CIF corn barges were about 2 cents lower at 17 cents above the CBOT December futures contract. Spot FOB offers were about 44 cents over futures.
CIF Gulf wheat basis bids were mostly steady, underpinned by light movement and thin supplies of high-protein grain. Export premiums were steady to firm. September barges of soft red winter wheat were bid around 30 cents over CBOT December futures and spot FOB offers at the Gulf were about 70 cents over December futures. CIF hard red winter wheat bids were stable at 150 cents over the K.C. December contract for 12-percent protein grain.
Copyright Reuters, 2017