India exports over 4 mn tonnes of wheat so far in FY'13

4 MAR, 2013, PTI
NEW DELHI: India has exported 4.03 million tonnes of wheat so far in the current fiscal, of which more than half of the grain was government-held stock, Parliament was informed today.

In September 2011, wheat export was permitted under Open General Licence (OGL) in view of sufficient supply due to bumper crop, while the overseas sale of government-held wheat stock was allowed in June 2012.

"During 2012-13 till February 22, a quantity of 4.03 million tonnes of wheat has been exported," Food Minister K V Thomas said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Of which, 2.07 million tonnes of wheat stored in the government godowns were exported through state agencies, while 35,000 tonnes of grain shipped to Afghanistan as humanitarian aid, he said.

In 2011-12 fiscal, the country had exported 7,41,000 tonnes of wheat, out of this 1,00,000 tonnes of the grain was exported from the Central pool as humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, he added.

The government-held wheat stock was not exported in 2009-10 and 2010-11 financial years.

Stating that the government has sufficient stock of wheat, Thomas said as on February 1 of this year, the stock of wheat in the central pool is 30.80 million tonnes, against the actual requirement of 11.2 million tonnes.

On wastage of foodgrains stocks in the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI), the Minister said a quantity of 1454.27 tonnes of foodgrains has been accrued as damaged/ non-issuable as on Feburary 22 of the current fiscal.

A total of 16,386 tonnes of foodgrains was non-issuable /damaged in the last three years in FCI, he said responding to a separate query.

Foodgrains are overflowing in the FCI godowns due to record procurement following bumper crop of 259.32 million tonnes in the 2011-12 crop year (July-June). Of which, wheat output stood an all-time high of 94.88 million tonnes, while rice at 105.31 million tonnes.

South American Grains Drive Panamax Shipping to Seven-Month High

By Michelle Wiese Bockmann - Mar 4, 2013
Bloomberg
Rates to hire Panamax ships, the largest to transit the Panama Canal, climbed to the highest in more than seven months amid increasing South American grain cargoes.

Hire costs rose 2.2 percent to $8,463 a day, the highest since July 25, according to the Baltic Exchange in London. Rates have gained for 19 consecutive sessions, the longest rally since July 2007, the data show. The Baltic Dry Index, a wider measure of freight prices, gained 1.7 percent to 789.

The global fleet of 2,320 Panamaxes carried more than 40 percent of grains shipped by sea in 2012, according to figures from Clarkson Plc and ICAP Shipping International Ltd., two London-based shipbrokers. Panamax rates rose in March in four of the past five years, exchange data show.

The “South American grain season is dominating the market,” RS Platou Markets A/S, an Oslo-based investment bank, said in an e-mailed report today.

Higher rates in the Atlantic Ocean are enticing ships from the Pacific, reducing the number available in the Asian market at a time when demand for Indonesian coal shipments to China is “firm,” Clarkson (CKN) said in a March 1 report.

Panamax capacity expanded by 13 percent in 2012, the second-fastest rate of expansion since 1982, Clarkson figures show. The wider shipping industry has 20 percent too much capacity after the global fleet grew by 35 percent since 2008, compared with world trade that expanded by 14 percent, the London shipbroker said.

Average rates for Capesize vessels, the biggest dry-bulk ships that transport ore and coal, declined 0.6 percent to $4,210 daily, according to the exchange.
Smaller Supramaxes that carry minerals and grains climbed 2.5 percent to $8,374. Handysizes, the smallest tracked, advanced 1.7 percent to $6,783 daily, exchange figures show.

Rates for Panamaxes averaged $6,428 last month. They need $6,606 to cover operating costs, minus fuel, figures from Moore Stephens LLP, a London shipping accountant show.

Bunker Prices : 05.03.2013

Source : Bunkerworld.com

	IFO380		IFO180		MDO		MGO
Singapore	624.00		631.00		915.00		925.00
Rotterdam	600.50		623.50		-		903.00
Houston	610.50		695.00		1,040.00		1,019.50
Fujairah	629.50		669.00		-		1,011.50
Los Angeles	641.50		678.00		1,045.00		1,060.00
Durban	-		652.50		1,095.00		1,093.00
Tokyo	678.50		687.00		962.50		-
Piraeus	624.50		655.00		-		942.50
Sydney	765.00		804.00		-		1,148.00
Santos	632.50		654.00		-		1,035.00
Guayaquil	678.00		734.00		-		1,494.00
Mundra	662.00		710.00		-		1,130.00
New York	630.00		659.50		1,045.00		995.00

Soevecon cautions over Russia grain export rebound

27th Feb 2013, by Agrimoney
Sovecon urged caution over prospects for a rebound in Russia's grain exports in 2013-14, despite questioning market ideas that the country may be in for a large rebuild of fast-depleting state inventories.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nikolai Fyodorov, the Russian agriculture minister, appeared to signal a willingness to rebuild state grain inventories, which are expected to be left nearly empty at the close of 2012-13 by sales into a domestic market clamouring for supplies after last year's drought hit harvest.

"My feeling is" that the start of intervention purchases "will be August or September", he told a meeting of the National Grain Producers' Union.

Last month, Ilya Shestakov, deputy farm minister, said that "if the harvest is good next year, we will consider replenishing these [intervention] stocks", which he saw ending the season at potentially 300,000 tonnes, after sales of some 4.5m tonnes.

Prospects for intervention buying are proving particularly sensitive given the thin levels of overall Russian supplies, and the outlook for this year's harvest which Andrey Sizov, the Sovecon managing director, termed "not that good" thanks to weather setbacks.

'Mechanism for market stabilisation'

In fact, Russia has a legal framework governing intervention buying which means that the level of purchases - if there are any at all – "is not at all clear yet", Mr Sizov said.

The purchases are based on a support price set at the end of March, and historically based on the previous year's price, plus an added percentage.

"If the market goes below the threshold price, the government will start intervention buying," Mr Sizov told Agrimoney.com.

"They do not say they want to buy a certain volume a year. Intervention - buying when prices fall too far, and selling when they rise - is a mechanism for market stabilisation."

Winterkill

Nonetheless, Mr Sizov was cautious on grain volumes which will be left to support exports in 2013-14, saying that while it was early in the season to be making forecasts, it appeared unlikely that they would approach last season's record of 28m tonnes.

They were likely to be closer to this season's exports, forecast at about 15m tonnes.

The country is set to end the current season with a thin level of overall carryover stocks, after a surge of early-season shipments exacerbated the impact of a disappointing harvest.

And the outlook for the 2013 harvest is not promising, after poor winter conditions left an estimated 12% of autumn-sown grains in poor condition, a higher-than-average rate of weather damage.

While some of this area will be resown in the spring, "much of it might go to non-grain crops", such as peas or sunflowers, Mr Sizov said.

"If you look historically, fluctuations in spring grain acreage are very low."

Price factor

Winter grain plantings had already proved disappointing, in part thanks to autumn dryness, and in part to fears – which have turned out to be unfounded – that the government would ban exports to protect domestic grain supplies, so sending prices tumbling.

In fact, prices have hit record highs, although weakening a little this month to some $385 a tonne, as measured by Central Russian food wheat.

"This price needs to drop by more than $100 a tonne for new crop to become competitive," Mr Sizov said.

While this was a possibility, "it will take some time", another reason to expect a slow-start to 2013-14 exports.

Evening markets: in-demand corn secures premium over wheat

27th Feb 2013, by Agrimoney
In the end, wheat futures did not pussyfoot around in surrendering their, usual, premium over fellow grain corn.

They held its own for most of the day, helped by ideas that prices near eight-month lows were attracting buyers.

"Bottom line is that wheat has simply got cheap enough for this time, given the strength in corn," Darrell Holaday at Country Futures said, towards the end of the trading day.

And that proved just about true for Chicago's best-traded May contract, which edged 1 cent higher to $7.12 a bushel.

Spreads game

But the March contract succumbed to a late-session capitulation which appeared based on technical factors.

After losing its premium over corn with some 20 minutes of trading to go, the lot dropped from about $7.08 a bushel, and a reasonable gain, to close at $7.04 ¼ a bushel, a decline of 0.2% on the day.

March corn, meanwhile, consolidated to close at $7.09 ½ a bushel, a gain of 0.6%.

Signally, the March corn contract also raised its premium over the May corn contract, which ended up just 0.5 cents at $6.95 ¼ a bushel.

Ethanol boost

There were a few forces at work in supporting corn, one being data  on weekly US ethanol production which bounced back 15,000 barrels a day last week, to 812,000 barrels a day, a seven-week high.

That is reapproaching levels which would meet US Department of Agriculture forecasts for corn use in making the biofuel in 2012-13, and with the summer driving season to come.

And it lends weight to ideas of capacity coming back on stream, after being mothballed last year as corn prices hit record highs.

In another sign of a tighter ethanol market, US stocks fell 121,000 barrels to 19.37m barrels.

'Cash is king'

Furthermore, there was talk from research group Yigu Information Consulting that China's imports of grain, notably corn, might be in for an uptick, on concerns of domestic supplies running low ahead of the autumn harvest.

Commodities guru Dennis Gartman said he would buy the grain, albeit at lower levels that today, at $6.77 a bushel, targeting $7.10-7.25 a bushel.

And, signally, there was the idea of US stocks being incredibly tight for now, a factor reflected in ideas of zero deliveries against the soon-to-expire March contract, meaning cash markets are a better place to sell, and leaving holders of short positions rushing to find coverage.

"With first notice day today, the shorts are now wondering where they are going to get the corn to deliver and they are scrambling to buy back their position," Mr Holaday said.

"The short squeeze that we have talked about throughout February is occurring. Cash ownership is king in the corn market."

'Weather leans negative'

That was enough to overcome a few negatives, such as better farming weather.

"Weather still leans negative [for prices] with beneficial rain/snow across the US Midwest and Plains, another storm across the southern Plains, eastern Midwest and Delta in the 11-to-15 day forecast, a wetter weekend outlook across Argentina, and timely rains headed for Chinese rapeseed areas," Richard Feltes at RJ O'Brien said.

US Commodities said: "Argentina's dry area has shrunk from 50% fewer weeks ago to 25% currently."

Brazil hiccups?

However, weather held some favours for bulls too, with Mr Feltes saying that it was "important to note that Brazilian port weather, after a dry patch this week, will shift wetter next week", meaning potential disruptions to loading cargoes.

(This is especially true of raw sugar, which recovered from a two-year low in New York to close up 0.3% at 17.84 cents a pound. The better-traded May contract added a more modest 0.2% to 18.08 cents a pound.)

And this when ships are already queuing up in Brazil to load up with soybeans from the early harvest.

Indeed, ideas of buyers still opting for higher-priced US supplies, which they can at least get hold of, gained renewed focus when the USDA unveiled the sale of 120,000 US soybeans to China for 2013-14, and a further 120,000 tonnes to "unknown" for 2012-13.

"We all assume it was China. There seems to be no end as they continue to buy some old crop," Country Futures' Mr Holaday said.

Soybeans for March ended up 0.7% at $14.57 ½ a bushel, with the better-traded May lot adding 0.5% to $14.39 ½ a bushel.

Mixed softs

Among soft commodities, sugar was not the only riser, with New York cotton adding 0.3% to 84.38 cents a pound for May delivery, and closing for December up 0.2% at 84.70 cents a pound, the contract's highest finish in nine months.

The fibre is being boosted by ideas of sustained Chinese demand, despite the huge stockpiles the country has run up.

But arabica coffee for May edged 0.05 cents lower to 145.45 cents a pound, providing little comfort for growers, notably in Colombia, concerned about the halving in prices from 2011 highs.

GRAINS-US soybeans rise on Chinese buying, corn up for 4th day

Thu Feb 28, 2013
* U.S. soy up for 2nd day, Chinese buying supports

* Corn up to over 2-week high on tight old-crop supply

* Wheat rises on hopes of rebound in U.S. exports

* Wheat set for biggest monthly drop since Sept, 2011
By Naveen Thukral
SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - U.S. soybean futures gained more ground on Thursday with Chinese buying supporting prices amid concerns over delays in shipping a record soybean crop from Brazil.

Corn rose for a fourth consecutive session to its highest in more than two weeks as the market was buoyed by tight old-crop supplies while wheat bounced back on hopes of higher demand for U.S. supplies.

"The market is realising that supply is very tight and it is going to be a big challenge to get soybeans and corn out of Brazil in time," said Victor Thianpiriya, agriculture strategist at ANZ in Singapore.

"Across wheat and corn markets, tight supply is going to support prices for the first half of the year until South America comes into the market."

Chicago Board of Trade March corn rose 0.6 percent to $7.13-1/4 a bushel by 0258 GMT, while March wheat added 0.9 percent to $7.10-1/4 a bushel. Soybeans gained 0.2 percent to $14.59-3/4 a bushel.

The soybean market is being underpinned by strong demand led by top importer China and expectations of shipping delays in Brazil, which is in the middle of harvesting a record crop.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday said private exporters had reported the sale of 240,000 tonnes of U.S soybeans, including 120,000 tonnes to China.

Traders said the market is closely watching Brazil's soybean crop progress for any signs of disruption or transport problems.

The country's soy industry says it is unable to speed this year's export flow, which is likely to be chaotic as record production is funnelled through ports that have failed to expand in tandem with grains output.

Soybeans received additional support on bargain hunting after prices fell for three days in a row and shed 2.7 percent of their value during the losing streak.

The wheat market is being buoyed by signs of rising interest from overseas buyers with prices on track for an almost 9 percent in February, the biggest monthly decline since September, 2011.

Saudi Arabia's state grains authority Grains Silos and Flour Mills Organisation has issued an international tender to purchase 110,000 tonnes of soft wheat and 440,000 tonnes of hard wheat.

Corn prices have been mixed, with the front-month contract firming due to short covering and tight supplies. Deferred corn contracts have faced headwinds amid expectations of large plantings in the United States in the spring, followed by a strong harvest in the fall.

For the month, corn is on track for an almost 4 percent drop, its sixth monthly loss in seven.

Commodity funds bought a net 3,000 CBOT soybean contracts on Wednesday, trade sources said. They were even in wheat and corn.
   
  Prices at  0252 GMT
  Contract        Last    Change  Pct chg  MA 30   RSI
  CBOT wheat     715.75     3.75  +0.53%   868.27   35
  CBOT corn      697.75     2.50  +0.36%   765.17   66
  CBOT soy      1442.00     2.50  +0.17%  1578.61   54
  CBOT rice      $15.79    $0.02  +0.13%   $15.49   38
  WTI crude      $93.10    $0.34  +0.37%   $89.09   35
  Currencies                                               
  Euro/dlr       $1.314   $0.085  +6.92%  
  USD/AUD         1.028   -0.028  -2.61%   
  Most active contracts
  Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per hundredweight
  RSI 14, exponential

(Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Chinese Feed Mills Said to Have Bought Six U.S. Corn Cargoes

By Bloomberg News - Feb 28, 2013
Chinese feed mills bought six cargoes of U.S. corn for delivery starting in September as users lock in future shipments that are cheaper than shorter-term purchases, said four executives in the grains industry with direct knowledge of the transactions.

The cargoes include at least 120,000 metric tons bought last week and total more than 300,000 tons, said the executives, who asked not to be identified because the deals are private. Feed mills and large livestock producers in southern China are among the buyers, they said. The executives requested that the sellers and purchasers not be named.

Suppliers of U.S. corn quoted about $297 (1,849 yuan) a ton, or 2,100 yuan including import taxes, for arrival in southern China from September, they said.

September corn on northern China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange traded at 2,439 yuan a ton at 11:30 a.m. local time. The most active contract in Chicago, for delivery in May, traded $6.9725 a bushel, while the September contract was $5.7825 a bushel.

China bought a record of 5.23 million tons of corn from overseas in the marketing year ended Sept. 30, and shipments this year are forecast to fall to 2.5 million tons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.