Flour millers from Indonesia and Malaysia are negotiating deals to buy some 200,000 tonnes of high-protein Australian milling wheat for April shipment, while Vietnamese buyers are in market for March arrival corn. Asian millers have stepped up purchases of wheat, corn and soybean as prices rose over the last few weeks due to the harsh winter in Europe and drought in South America.
"Most millers in Asia are short on high-protein wheat, so they are looking at Australian cargoes," said a trading manager with an international trading company in Singapore. "They have been postponing purchases, expecting prices to fall." Australian prime hard wheat with 11.5 percent protein was quoted at around $325 a tonne, including cost and freight, into Southeast Asia, compared with US hard red winter wheat with similar protein scales being offered at $335 a tonne. Dark northern spring wheat from the United States was quoted this week close to $400 a tonne, C&F. A global demand-supply report from the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday showed larger-than-expected supplies of corn and soybeans even as a severe drought curbed yields in Brazil and Argentina.
Chicago wheat slid almost 1 percent on Friday, falling for a fourth straight session and touching its lowest in almost two weeks, while soybeans and corn lost more ground. Wheat is down 3 percent so far this week, corn has shed 1.6 percent and soybeans have lost about 1 percent, all on course to snap a three-week rising streak.
Japan's farm ministry bought 75,742 tonnes of milling wheat from the United States and Canada, the volume it had sought, in a weekly tender. In the feed grain market, Vietnam and Malaysia are seeking new-crop South American corn for April shipment. "They haven't signed any deals yet, but we expect them to contract some cargoes next week," said another Singapore trader.
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