BLBG:Soybeans Rise as Chinese Demand Gains Amid Brazil Shipping Delay
Soybeans rose in Chicago, extending last week’s advance, on signs China is boosting purchases of U.S. supplies as a shipping backlog delays exports from Brazil.
China bought 410,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans, the Department of Agriculture said in a report Feb. 22. Ports in Brazil, expected to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest shipper, have 192 vessels waiting to load oilseeds and grains, more than double the year-earlier 90, researcher SA Commodities said Feb. 22. The Brazilian soybean harvest is 27 percent complete, ahead of last year’s 20 percent pace, and may total 81.2 million tons, researcher AgRural said today.
“China is still importing,” said Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Tokyo-based Astmax Investment Management Inc., which manages about $700 million. “As soon as prices decline, the Chinese will come in to buy.”
Soybeans for delivery in May added 0.5 percent to $14.51 a bushel at 4:52 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, swinging from a retreat of as much as 0.6 percent. Trading volume was 97 percent higher than the 100-day average for that time of day. China is the world’s biggest importer of the oilseed, which climbed 2 percent last week.
Futures fell 1.8 percent on Feb. 22 after the USDA said farmers in the U.S. will expand soybean sowing, taking the next harvest to an all-time high of 3.4 billion bushels and doubling inventories by Aug. 31, 2014. Corn production may rebound to a record 14.53 billion bushels, up 35 percent from the previous year’s drought-reduced crop.
Wheat Prices
Corn for delivery in May rose 0.4 percent to $6.8675 a bushel, erasing a drop of as much as 0.4 percent, and wheat for the same delivery month was little changed at $7.185 a bushel. In Paris, milling wheat for delivery in May fell 0.6 percent to 236 euros ($313) a ton on NYSE Liffe.
Areas of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas were under a blizzard warning today, with some areas expected to receive more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow, according to the National Weather Service. While much of the central to northern Great Plains was under moderate to exceptional drought as of Feb. 19, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, central Oklahoma northward already has snow cover from recent storms, Weather Service data show.
“A snowstorm in the U.S. Midwest has significantly increased the snow cover in the winter wheat growing areas, which should considerably improve moisture levels in the soil when the snow melts in spring,” Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in an e-mailed report. “The winter wheat plants are in very poor condition due to the prolonged period of drought.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net; Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.
