Global Ag News for Mar 8

TODAY—EXPORT INSPECTIONS—

Overnight trade has SRW Wheat up roughly 3 cents, HRW up 2; HRS Wheat up 4, Corn is up 3 cents; Soybeans up 14; Soymeal up $4.00, and Soyoil up 75 points.

For the week, SRW Wheat prices were down roughly 7 cents; HRW down 7; HRS up 5; Corn was down 1 cent; Soybeans up 22 cents; Soymeal down $2.00, and; Soyoil up 195 points. Crushing margins were down 6 cents at $0.60 (July); Oil share up 1% at 7%.

Chinese Ag futures (May) settled down 30 yuan in soybeans, up 24 in Corn, up 50 in Soymeal, up 314 in Soyoil, and up 276 in Palm Oil.

Malaysian palm oil prices were up 142 ringgit at 3,883 (basis May) following rival vegoil markets, jump in crude oil prices on news of missile attacks on Saudi oil installations.

Argentina will experience some important scattered showers and thunderstorms in the far southwest Monday and again late this week and into early next week in many northern and western crop areas. The 6 to 10 day has moderate rainfall amounts with good coverage in the main growing regions.

Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are dry biased during the coming ten days.

Rain in Brazil over the next ten days will be most frequent in northern regions of Brazil. This is not unusual weather for this time of year and the moisture will be good for late and full season crops, including Safrinha corn. Harvesting of soybeans and planting of Safrinha corn will continue around periodic rainfall. Temperatures will be seasonable.

The player sheet had funds net buyers of 3,000 SRW Wheat; bought 32,000 contracts of Corn; bought 14,000 Soybeans; bought 1,000 lots of Soymeal, and; net bought 6,000 Soyoil.

We estimate Managed Money net long 23,000 contracts of SRW Wheat; long 356,000 Corn; net long 166,000 Soybeans; net long 62,000 lots of Soymeal, and; long 119,000 Soyoil.

Preliminary Open Interest saw SRW Wheat futures down roughly 1,000 contracts; HRW Wheat up 1,000; Corn up 2,900; Soybeans up 4,600 contracts; Soymeal up 1,200 lots, and; Soyoil up 3,400.

Deliveries were ZERO Soymeal; ZERO Soyoil; 2 Rice; ZERO Corn; 19 HRW Wheat; 2 Oats; ZERO Soybeans; ZERO SRW Wheat, and; ZERO HRS Wheat.

There were no changes in registrations—Registrations total 49 contracts for SRW Wheat; 7 Oats; Corn ZERO; Soybeans 62; Soyoil 1,248 lots; Soymeal 175; Rice 1,010; HRW Wheat 1,291, and; HRS 710. 

Tender Activity—Algeria seeks 50,000t optional-origin wheat—Pakistan passed on 300,000t optional-origin wheat—S. Korea bought 130,000t optional-origin feed wheat—Pakistan bought 594,000t optional-origin soybeans for 2022 shipment in recent weeks.

Speculators’ bullish bets in Chicago corn and soybeans have been oscillating at unusually high levels so far this year as global supplies are seen falling to multi-year lows. Fresh, supportive news was somewhat lacking last month, though concerns over crops in South America renewed price optimism late last week.

Wire story reported while supply-chain experts are stepping up talk about moving manufacturing to new sites, container ship operators are putting down big bets that the world’s factory floor will remain in China. Shipping lines have placed, or have in the wings, orders for dozens of new ultra-large box ships designed to move massive amounts of cargo on each voyage. Such orders demonstrate that as far as the companies that move most of the world’s transported goods are concerned, global trade in the era after Covid-19 restrictions are lifted will look much like the pre-pandemic world, with Chinese manufacturers pushing furniture, electronics and other manufactured products to Western markets.

China’s soybean imports in the first two months of 2021 fell slightly from a year earlier, customs data showed on Sunday, as rains in top exporter Brazil slowed some shipments. The world’s top market for soybeans brought in 13.41 million tonnes of the oilseed in January and February, down 0.8% from 13.51 million tonnes a year earlier. China’s customs office releases preliminary trade data for January and February together rather than separately to smooth out distortions caused by the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which this year was in mid-February.

China’s imports of edible vegetable oils in the January-February period soared 48% from a year earlier to 2.04 million tonnes, amid high domestic prices and strong demand.

China imported 1.6 million tonnes of meat in the first two months of the year, customs data showed, up 27.6% from the same period a year earlier. Shipments rose from last year’s 1.26 million tonnes after China’s output of pork, its staple meat, remained affected by an outbreak of African swine fever that began in 2018. China’s pork output fell 3.3% in 2020 after plunging 21% the prior year, boosting meat imports to a record high, while imports were also impacted by COVID-19 quarantines.

China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Monday it will crack down further on illegal production and sales of African swine fever vaccines in a sign of the extent of a problem that is damaging the world’s largest pig industry. The ministry, which has been warning against such behavior since 2019, said tougher measures were needed to “prevent hidden risks caused by fake African swine fever vaccines, and make every effort to maintain the overall situation of the recovery of pig production and the stable development of the industry.

BRAZIL SOYBEAN EXPORTS IN MARCH SEEN REACHING 13.79 MILLION TNS – ANEC

BRAZIL CORN EXPORTS IN MARCH SEEN REACHING 62,800 TNS – ANEC

Brazil truck freight rates soar as soybean harvest lags. February truck freight rates touched a 2.5-year high on a key soybean route in Brazil’s top grain state of Mato Grosso amid harvest delays. On the route connecting the country’s soy capital Sorriso to Rondonópolis, from where grains go by rail to the Santos port, truck freight rates hit 138.69 reais ($24.36) per tonne last month, the highest since July 2018 in the region. Brazil had harvested 25% of its soybean area through Thursday of last week, the slowest pace in 10 years. Mato Grosso soy is usually planted before other regions, but the delay in harvesting there means it is now competing with other grain producing regions for trucks to haul its oilseeds to market.

• STRATEGIE GRAINS CUTS EU 2021/22 RAPESEED CROP FORECAST BY 90,000 T TO 17.05 MLN T, STILL UP 800,000 T ON 2020/21
• STRATEGIE GRAINS RAISES 2020/21 EU & UK RAPESEED CRUSHING ESTIMATE BY 300,000 T TO 24.2 MLN T, NOW UP 600,000 T ON LAST SEASON
• STRATEGIE GRAINS CUTS EU & UK 2020/21 RAPESEED IMPORT ESTIMATE BY 190,000 T TO 6.5 MLN T, NOW NEARLY STABLE ON 2019/20
• CONSULTANCY STRATEGIE GRAINS CUTS EU & UK 2020/21 RAPESEED ENDING STOCKS FORECAST BY 180,000 T TO 1.1 MLN T, DOWN 800,000 T FROM LAST SEASON

EURONEXT RAPESEED MAY HITS 528.75 EUROS/T IN EARLY TRADE, HIGHEST PRICE TRADED ON A FRONT MONTH CONTRACT SINCE LAUNCH OF EURONEXT RAPESEED FUTURES IN 1994

Egypt has strategic reserves of vegetable oils sufficient for five months of consumption following state buyer GASC’s latest tender, the supply ministry said.