SHANGHAI: China plans to auction 4 million tonnes of soybeans from its state reserves in a bid to contain prices ahead of the seasonal demand peak, the 21st Century Business Herald said on Friday, citing senior officials from the country's major grain traders.
The sales will be open to major edible-oil makers including Yihai Kerry Group and state-owned Cofco Group, the paper quoted unidentified officials from Cofco and Yihai as saying. Yihai Kerry is the Chinese operation of Singapore-based Wilmar International Ltd.
The government would likely set the soybeans at a base price at around 3,500 yuan ($547.93) a tonne.
Once the government completes the latest auction, it would only have 1.4 million tonnes of state reserves left, the paper said, citing a source from the China Grain Reserves Corp., the state stockpiler.
With inflation running at a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July, the government is timing to launch the auction ahead of the busy consumption season in September and October to curb edible oil prices from increasing during the period.
China's benchmark soybean futures has been steadily climbing since hitting a near three-month low of 4,428 yuan a tonne on Aug 9. It was down 0.6 percent at 4,583 yuan at 0232 GMT on Friday.
Copyright Reuters, 2011
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