The bulls were finally able to put their foot down overnight, at least temporarily, following an ugly week for that camp; it will be tough for them to add momentum going forward, though, in the face of much-improved growing conditions for most U.S. crop areas for the holiday-shortened week.
A branch of Taiwan’s BSPA is looking for two bean cargoes totaling 120,000 tonnes, in a tender closing tomorrow; shipment will be set for Aug-Sep. A separate branch of the BSPA bought 120k tonnes of Brazil soy today as well, for July-Aug shipment, against the Nov contract at $578/580 per tonne.
Japan’s Ag Ministry bought 32,000 tonnes of feed wheat and 89,000 tonnes of feed barley today, while seeking another 120k tonnes of feed wheat and 200k tonnes of feed barley, all for shipment by August. They also took 153k tonnes as scheduled in their weekly milling wheat tender, including a combined104k tonnes from the United States, and 49k from Canada.
The Russian Grain Union expects the 2012/13 grain harvest to “at least” match last year’s 94 million tonnes, despite some dryness in southern regions as of late; wheat production is expected at “at least” 56 MMT, with barley at 17-18 MMT. Total grain exports are seen falling from 26-27 to 20 MMT.
The HGCA expects United Kingdom wheat exports to drop in ‘11/12, down a 200k tonnes to 2.45 MMT, as shipments slowed in March and will continue to slow in coming months; the country’s wheat feed use is seen at 6.54 MMT, up from 6.14 MMT in ‘10/11 and up from the previous HGCA forecast.
The U.N. FAO sees Morocco’s 2012 wheat crop at just 2.7 MMT, down from 6.02 MMT in 2011 due to a Dec-March drought, while barley output is also expected to drop sharply, from 2.34 MMT last year to 900k tonnes in 2012. 2012/13 grain imports are likely to rise from last year’s 5.5 MMT; the USDA expects Morocco’s wheat imports to rise over 50% in ‘12/13, to 5.0 MMT.
Matt Zeller