(Businessweek) – Corn dropped after the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its estimate for world inventories. Soybeans declined as Wilmar International Ltd. (WIL) said that China’s imports will fall as bird flu curbs feed demand.
The grain for delivery in July, which has the largest open interest, lost as much as 0.5 percent to $6.295 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $6.2975 at 10:22 a.m. in Singapore. Soybeans for May delivery lost 0.6 percent to $13.845 a bushel in Chicago.
Inventories of corn around the world will be 125.29 million metric tons, up from 117.48 million tons predicted a month ago, boosted by higher stockpiles in the U.S., the USDA said yesterday. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 120.41 million, on average. The stockpiles are down from 131.88 million tons a year earlier.
“We’ll probably trade relatively flat to slightly bearish,” Graydon Chong, a grains and oilseeds analyst at Rabobank International, said by phone from Sydney today.
China, the world’s largest soybean buyer, will probably import less this year as the outbreak of bird flu curbs demand for poultry, a Wilmar executive said. That would be the first decline since 2004, according to USDA data.
Wilmar’s forecast may help push prices lower, Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager for research at Tokyo-based Nihon Unicom Inc., said in an e-mail. China’s imports will account for 64 percent of this year’s world shipments, according to the USDA.
Global inventories of the oilseed at the end of this marketing year will be 62.63 million tons, up from 60.21 million forecast in March, the USDA said, as it kept its stockpile estimate for the U.S. unchanged. Analysts expected 60.1 million tons, on average. A year earlier, supplies totaled 55.13 million.
Wheat for delivery in July was little changed at $7.0325 a bushel in Chicago after rising as much as 0.5 percent to $7.065. The price touched $6.9375 yesterday, the lowest since April 5.
