(Businessweek) – Soybeans advanced for a second day on concern that planting may be delayed in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter last year.
The contract for delivery in July rose as much as 0.6 percent to $13.90 a bushel and traded at $13.895 as of 11:13 a.m. Singapore time. That pared losses to 1.5 percent this year.
About 2 percent of U.S. crop were planted as of May 5, down from 22 percent a year earlier and the five-year average of 12 percent, according to Department of Agriculture data. Winter wheat was about 20 percent headed, below the five-year average of 39 percent, USDA data showed.
“There is increasing chatter within the market that slow U.S. winter wheat development may prevent farmers from seeding soybeans in double-cropping regions,” Luke Mathews, Sydney-based analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report. “These worries are generally drowned-out by forecasts that the slow corn seeding pace, the slowest since 1984, will see farmers switch acres into soybeans, resulting in a net increase in U.S. soybean area planted.”
China imported 3.98 million tons of soybeans in April, according to customs data released today. That compared with 3.84 million tons in March, and 4.88 million tons a year ago.
The year-on decline in imports “is within expectations,”Joyce Liu, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte in Singapore said in an e-mail. “China had previously stocked up soybeans and the on-going Avian flu took a significant portion of soybean feed demand off the market.”
Wheat for July delivery was little changed at $7.0875 a bushel, while corn advanced 0.2 percent to $6.41 a bushel.
