BLBG:Soybeans, Grains Climb on China Demand as Global Supply Declines
Soybeans advanced for a third day on speculation that demand from China, the largest buyer, may be sustained as the world’s second-biggest economy begins to stabilize. Corn and wheat rose.
Soybeans for November delivery advanced as much as 1 percent to $15.2425 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, before trading at $15.22 at 3:25 p.m. Singapore time. The price has climbed 26 percent in 2012 as the worst U.S. drought since 1956 curbed production.
China’s imports may rise 9.3 percent to 57.5 million metric tons, Grain.gov.cn said. The country imports will probably reach 3.5 million tons in October, 5.2 million tons in November and 4.5 million tons in December, the state-owned researcher said in a report today. The country’s industrial production rebounded from a three-year low and the economy expanded 7.4 percent in the third quarter, government data showed today.
“Talk of continued export demand from top soybean buyer China lent support” to prices, Teoh Say Hwa, head of investment at Phillip Futures Pte., said in an e-mail today.
Corn for delivery in December climbed 0.5 percent to $7.49 a bushel, while wheat futures for the same month rose 0.5 percent to $8.6075 a bushel. Corn reached a record $8.49 in August as the U.S. drought destroyed crops.
Wheat reserves in Australia, the second-biggest shipper, dropped 14 percent to 7.1 million tons at Sept. 30 from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Reduced Stockpiles
Today’s gains “could simply be a reflection of the fact that the overwhelming supply situation for grains and oilseeds is where inventories are tight and are forecast to remain tight over the next 12 months,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said by phone from Sydney.
South Korea’s Nonghyup Feed Inc. is seeking to buy as much as 70,000 tons of wheat for arrival by Jan. 20 at a tender at 4:30 p.m. Seoul time today, according to tender notice.
The northern soybean and corn-growing areas in Brazil may have near to below-normal rainfall and near to above-normal temperatures over the next nine days, Telvent DTN Inc. said in a forecast yesterday. The nation is set to be the world’s largest shipper of soybeans and the second-largest exporter of corn this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
While South American soybean and corn planting have had an average start, Brazil and Argentina need at least “normal” weather for the rest of the growing season to keep global inventories above record lows, Morgan Stanley said in a report Oct. 15. Argentina is the third-largest corn and soybean shipper, according to the USDA.
In China, soybeans for May delivery advanced 0.8 percent to 4,770 yuan ($763) a ton on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, while corn for January climbed 0.3 percent to 2,347 yuan a ton.
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
