REUTERS
Posted: Friday, Jul 20, 2012
Hamburg/London: Grains suppliers are starting to default on previously agreed sales to major importers, including top wheat buyer Egypt, rather than deliver on contracts that are now losing money because of the huge rally in prices sparked by the US drought.
The drought is wilting crops in the US Midwest and sending prices into overdrive, with corn alone surging by around 50% in the last month. Soyabeans have also hit record highs, with wheat not far behind.
Crop downgrades in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan as drought followed a bitterly cold winter have added to global price rises, stoking fears of unrest especially in West Asian countries, where high food prices can trigger political protest.
Traders say some private grain sales to buyers in cereals importing giant Egypt have fallen apart, but they stress that multinational trading houses will deliver on contracts and the default problem is likely to focus on smaller firms. However such firms often put together deals of up to 100,000 tonne.
We are talking a few Egyptian private buyers who had contracts from suppliers in the Black Sea not executed and it’s both for corn and wheat. The type of cargo sizes are small and between 10,000 and up to 25,000 tonne, a West Asian-based trader said. Doubts are also being raised over whether recent wheat sales to Libya will be delivered.
Only in June, traders were selling wheat and other grains to buyers in West Asia in expectation that a record US corn crop and Russian export surge would push down global grains prices, one German trader said.
The price rises mean some sales were made at huge losses, people are now looking at the terms of their performance bonds to see if it is worthwhile not delivering.
On most contracts in international trade, sellers have to provide a guarantee that they will pay a penalty if they do not fulfil their contract called a performance bond.
In some grains deals, the performance bond means sellers must pay 10% of the contract value to the buyer if a default talks place.
Grains purchases are traditionally made months in advance, with traders using their market knowledge to calculate whether supplies will be plentiful or tight at the future time when the grain has to be bought and ships loaded. Until about four weeks ago, traders were expecting falling prices with a record US corn crop on the horizon, providing the import supply chain with low cost grain many sellers had not bought yet.
Any rise in such defaults could cause a huge increase in costs, especially for West Asian and African countries which depend on grain imports for their bread and farm animal feed.
Adding to the pain, dry bulk shipping costs have risen in recent weeks due to firmer commodities cargo activity. Average daily panamax bulk carrier transport earnings hit near two month highs this week. Sales in some grain tenders could not have been covered by purchases of physical supplies because the prices bet on in May and June never materialised in Black Sea, EU or US markets, another trader said.
Sellers in some individual international tenders could be facing losses running into millions of dollars on single deals. Some people with a 10% performance bond on deals could be financially better off defaulting than delivering, another trader said.
Posted: Friday, Jul 20, 2012
Hamburg/London: Grains suppliers are starting to default on previously agreed sales to major importers, including top wheat buyer Egypt, rather than deliver on contracts that are now losing money because of the huge rally in prices sparked by the US drought.
The drought is wilting crops in the US Midwest and sending prices into overdrive, with corn alone surging by around 50% in the last month. Soyabeans have also hit record highs, with wheat not far behind.
Crop downgrades in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan as drought followed a bitterly cold winter have added to global price rises, stoking fears of unrest especially in West Asian countries, where high food prices can trigger political protest.
Traders say some private grain sales to buyers in cereals importing giant Egypt have fallen apart, but they stress that multinational trading houses will deliver on contracts and the default problem is likely to focus on smaller firms. However such firms often put together deals of up to 100,000 tonne.
We are talking a few Egyptian private buyers who had contracts from suppliers in the Black Sea not executed and it’s both for corn and wheat. The type of cargo sizes are small and between 10,000 and up to 25,000 tonne, a West Asian-based trader said. Doubts are also being raised over whether recent wheat sales to Libya will be delivered.
Only in June, traders were selling wheat and other grains to buyers in West Asia in expectation that a record US corn crop and Russian export surge would push down global grains prices, one German trader said.
The price rises mean some sales were made at huge losses, people are now looking at the terms of their performance bonds to see if it is worthwhile not delivering.
On most contracts in international trade, sellers have to provide a guarantee that they will pay a penalty if they do not fulfil their contract called a performance bond.
In some grains deals, the performance bond means sellers must pay 10% of the contract value to the buyer if a default talks place.
Grains purchases are traditionally made months in advance, with traders using their market knowledge to calculate whether supplies will be plentiful or tight at the future time when the grain has to be bought and ships loaded. Until about four weeks ago, traders were expecting falling prices with a record US corn crop on the horizon, providing the import supply chain with low cost grain many sellers had not bought yet.
Any rise in such defaults could cause a huge increase in costs, especially for West Asian and African countries which depend on grain imports for their bread and farm animal feed.
Adding to the pain, dry bulk shipping costs have risen in recent weeks due to firmer commodities cargo activity. Average daily panamax bulk carrier transport earnings hit near two month highs this week. Sales in some grain tenders could not have been covered by purchases of physical supplies because the prices bet on in May and June never materialised in Black Sea, EU or US markets, another trader said.
Sellers in some individual international tenders could be facing losses running into millions of dollars on single deals. Some people with a 10% performance bond on deals could be financially better off defaulting than delivering, another trader said.
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