16th Jul 2012, by Agrimoney
Australia's wheat stocks tumbled again last month, signalling continued bumper exports and adding to a picture of a healthy grains industry – contrasting with challenged prospects for its mining sector.
The country's wheat inventories tumbled 2.3m tonnes to 14.1m tonnes last month, a fifth successive month of shrinkage of more than 2m tonnes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
With the country using only about 500,000 tonnes of wheat a month itself, the fall was seen signalling a further month of healthy exports, which are expected to come in at a record for 2011-12.
"The continuous decrease of Australia's bulk storage of wheat grain closely follows the expected pattern of decline post-harvest in combination with increasing wheat grain exports over the last few months," the ABS said.
Feed vs milling
The decline was particularly notable in feed wheat, of which Australia shifted nearly 850,000 tonnes, lowering the ratio of the grade in its total wheat stocks to 30%.
That was the lowest since November 2010, at the start of a wet east coast harvesting period which caused damage significant enough to force the downgrade of a considerable quantity of milling wheat.
The proportion of feed in total supplies peaked at 51% in September 2011, with Australia, better known for higher quality grain, finding feed wheat relatively hard to shift.
The relatively high price of corn, an alternative feed grain, even before the jump of 50% in Chicago over the last month has helped Australia find homes for lower-quality wheat.
Farming vs mining
The sharp fall in wheat stocks tallies with an upbeat mood among Australia grain farmers, who have enjoyed high prices and a succession of strong harvests, with National Australia Bank flagging "wildly bullish" sentiment.
Growers' ebullience contrasts with that elsewhere in the commodities sector, among mining companies, for which Martin Ferguson, Australia's resources minister, said that the period of high prices had "gone".
"We're not going to see iron ore at $180-190 a tonne, we're not going to see thermal coal at about $170 a tonne, coking coal at about $US320 a tonne any more,"Mr Ferguson said.
He added that, as a "high wage economy", Australia "will only continue to prosper if more efficient mining and processing techniques are implemented.
"For Australia to remain competitive in a global market in which low-wage competitors are emerging every year, we must ensure that we develop and employ technology."
Australia's wheat stocks tumbled again last month, signalling continued bumper exports and adding to a picture of a healthy grains industry – contrasting with challenged prospects for its mining sector.
The country's wheat inventories tumbled 2.3m tonnes to 14.1m tonnes last month, a fifth successive month of shrinkage of more than 2m tonnes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
With the country using only about 500,000 tonnes of wheat a month itself, the fall was seen signalling a further month of healthy exports, which are expected to come in at a record for 2011-12.
"The continuous decrease of Australia's bulk storage of wheat grain closely follows the expected pattern of decline post-harvest in combination with increasing wheat grain exports over the last few months," the ABS said.
Feed vs milling
The decline was particularly notable in feed wheat, of which Australia shifted nearly 850,000 tonnes, lowering the ratio of the grade in its total wheat stocks to 30%.
That was the lowest since November 2010, at the start of a wet east coast harvesting period which caused damage significant enough to force the downgrade of a considerable quantity of milling wheat.
The proportion of feed in total supplies peaked at 51% in September 2011, with Australia, better known for higher quality grain, finding feed wheat relatively hard to shift.
The relatively high price of corn, an alternative feed grain, even before the jump of 50% in Chicago over the last month has helped Australia find homes for lower-quality wheat.
Farming vs mining
The sharp fall in wheat stocks tallies with an upbeat mood among Australia grain farmers, who have enjoyed high prices and a succession of strong harvests, with National Australia Bank flagging "wildly bullish" sentiment.
Growers' ebullience contrasts with that elsewhere in the commodities sector, among mining companies, for which Martin Ferguson, Australia's resources minister, said that the period of high prices had "gone".
"We're not going to see iron ore at $180-190 a tonne, we're not going to see thermal coal at about $170 a tonne, coking coal at about $US320 a tonne any more,"Mr Ferguson said.
He added that, as a "high wage economy", Australia "will only continue to prosper if more efficient mining and processing techniques are implemented.
"For Australia to remain competitive in a global market in which low-wage competitors are emerging every year, we must ensure that we develop and employ technology."
No comments:
Post a Comment