(Businessweek) – Soybeans are heading for a second weekly gain in Chicago after weekly U.S. shipments improved amid shipping delays in Brazil, predicted to be the largest exporter this season.
Export sales of U.S. old- and new-crop soybeans jumped 48 percent to 566,752 metric tons in the week to April 11 from a week earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported yesterday. In Brazil, vessels are waiting as long as 51 days to load at Paranagua port and 41 days at Santos, twice as long as last year, SA Commodities said.
“In the international market, Brazil is not helping because of their port backlogs,” Joyce Liu, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte., said from Singapore. “So you’ve got low supplies, high demand and we don’t have any alternative to relieve the situation.”
Soybeans for July delivery were little changed at $13.8775 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 5:02 a.m. local time. Earlier they rose as much as 0.8 percent to $14.005. They are headed for a weekly advance of 0.6 percent. Soybean futures on April 16 fell to the lowest intraday level since June 19 on concern an outbreak of avian flu in China may hurt demand.
“Given all the talk about China bird flu, it comes as a surprise that the export sales are still so strong,” Liu said.
The H7N9 virus, which has killed at least 17 people in China since March, has caused losses for the nation’s poultry industry as consumers avoid chicken, the Xinhua News Agency said April 16, citing the China Animal Husbandry Association. Poultry feed is mostly made of corn and soybean meal.
Corn for July delivery fell 0.3 percent to $6.2775 a bushel in Chicago, heading for a weekly loss. Wheat for delivery in July dropped 0.7 percent to $7.0175 a bushel in Chicago, also poised for a weekly decline.
Milling wheat for November delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris slipped 0.1 percent to 212 euros ($277.47) a metric ton. Spain, the European Union’s second-largest wheat importer after Italy, yesterday predicted its harvest of the grain will jump 31 percent after a wet autumn boosted soil-water reserves.
