SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans bounced back on Thursday, rising almost 1 percent on strong demand from top importer China, although expectations of a quickened pace for the US harvest capped gains.
Wheat also edged higher as heavy rains in parts of Australia’s eastern grain belt threatened the quality of what is expected to be a near-record crop, while corn rebounded after Wednesday’s decline.
Chicago Board of Trade most-active soybean contract rose 0.9 percent to $9.53-1/2 a bushel by 0246 GMT, having closed down 0.7 percent on Wednesday. Wheat added 0.1 percent to $4.03-1/2 a bushel, and corn rose 0.4 percent to $3.30-1/2 a bushel.
China has been booking US soybean shipments this week, underpinning the market. “Soybeans are edging higher after an overnight decline but it’s hard to get any big rally in prices because of plentiful supplies,” said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
US corn and soybean harvests have been advancing slower than average, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data showed on Monday. But fields are expected to dry out in coming days in the Midwest grain belts, helping farmers to pick up the pace.
US soybean and corn crops are expected come in at all-time highs. Australia’s east coast will also likely see wetter conditions than usual for the rest of the year, stoking fears of wheat output losses in the world’s No. 4 exporter of the grain.
The country’s east coast has a 60 percent chance of above average rainfall from October to December, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday. “We have had a lot of rain on the east coast, there are concerns about quality downgrades,” said Ziebell.
“In Western Australia we have had frost damage, and there some worries about crop yield and quality. Australia is still on track for a big crop but the question is how much is downgraded to feed wheat.” Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT soybean and corn futures contracts on Wednesday and net even in wheat. They were net sellers of soyoil and net even in soymeal.
In potentially bearish news for the corn market, China will impose anti-subsidy duties of between 10 percent and 10.7 percent on imports of the US animal feed ingredient known as distillers’ dried grains, the Commerce Ministry said in a preliminary ruling. The move was widely expected after the government announced a similar move on anti-dumping duties last week.
