Corn Climbs as Demand Growing for U.S. Supplies; Soybeans Drop

March 24th, 2014

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Category: Grains, Miscellaneous, Oilseeds

(Bloomberg) – Corn advanced for a second day on speculation that demand will increase for supplies from the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter. Soybeans fell to the lowest level in almost a week.

Corn for May delivery climbed as much as 1 percent to $4.8375 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $4.8275 by 12 p.m. in Singapore. Futures lost 1.4 percent last week, trimming this year’s rise to 14 percent.

U.S. exporters sold 340,000 metric tons of corn to Egypt for delivery by Aug. 31, according to the Department of Agriculture. Prices gained 1.5 percent on March 18, the most in more than a week, after USDA data showed the grain inspected for shipment from the U.S. more than doubled to 976,742 tons in the week ended March 13 from a year earlier.

“Support came from fresh export demand,” Vanessa Tan, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte in Singapore, said in an e-mail. “This helped to lift sentiment and provided support to corn.”

Soybeans for May delivery lost as much as 1.1 percent to $13.9325 a bushel, the lowest since March 18, extending a 1.7 percent decline on March 21. Futures last traded at $14.0575.

The decline in soybeans could be because of concern demand from China will falter, Tan said. The Asian nation is the world’s biggest importer of the oilseed, according to the USDA.

Chen Xuecong, vice president of Sinograin Oils Corp., a unit of the state-owned China Grain Reserves Corp., said on March 21 that demand will weaken in the next two quarters as imports “pile up” and outstrip consumption. Data from Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. showed processors have lost money since the start of March.

Wheat for delivery in May traded at $6.93 a bushel in Chicago from $6.9325 on March 21.

 

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