BLBG:Corn Declines on Speculation U.S. Exports May Face Increased Competition
Corn dropped for a second day on speculation that increased competition among exporters may hurt demand for U.S. shipments. Wheat also fell while soybeans gained.
December-delivery corn retreated as much as 1.4 percent to $6.68 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, before trading at $6.7625 at 11:19 a.m. Singapore time.
Corn exports from the U.S., the world’s largest shipper, may have ranged between 100,000 metric tons to 400,000 tons in the week ended July 14, down from 481,309 tons a week earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Ukraine, the world’s fourth-largest exporter, may almost double shipments of all grains in the year that started July 1, Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said yesterday.
“The Black Sea region producers are generally discounted in the market, so when they can ramp up their export program we do see a fairly large negative impact on prices,” Michael Creed, an agribusiness analyst at National Australia Bank Ltd., said by phone from Melbourne today.
Ukraine was forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ship 7.5 million tons of corn in the year beginning October, from 6 million tons a year earlier.
As much as 1.5 inches of rain will temporarily boost soil moisture in parts of the northern and eastern Midwest on July 24 and July 25, World Weather Inc. said yesterday.
“Recent rainfall has had some negative influence” on corn, Creed said. Prices may recover when dry conditions return, threatening yields, he said. “Weather concerns in the U.S. are likely to provide heightened volatility that could also see prices back up again.”
Wheat for September delivery dropped as much as 2 percent to $6.83 a bushel, before trading at $6.91.
Ukraine’s wheat exports in the year from July 1 may reach 10 million tons, Prysyazhnyuk said. That compares with a 7.5 million ton estimate by the USDA, which ranks the nation as the second-largest shipper in the former Soviet Union.
Soybeans for November-delivery climbed 0.4 percent to $13.8975 a bushel.
To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
