US FOB Gulf corn basis offers were mostly steady on Monday, while soyabeans were weak on thin export demand amid cheaper supplies in South America. Barge freight on the Illinois, lower Ohio and lower Mississippi rivers was flat on slow grain movement, traders said.
Rates increased last week after two grain elevators began shipping corn to export terminals at the Gulf coast.
Ocean freight on the benchmark route from the US Gulf to Japan dropped below the $40 per tonne level, falling about 40 percent from this year's peak hit in March.
Traders were hopeful that the slump in ocean freight would help draw fresh export demand for corn and soyabeans.
There was talk of interest for US corn from Mexico and South Korea, but any deals could not be confirmed. Traders said Japan was seeking corn for October shipment.
Traders said farmer selling of corn and soyabeans was slow as rains and forecasts for cooler weather in the Midwest pressured CBOT corn and kept a lid on soya futures.
"Farmers in this area are not selling anything," a eastern Iowa river trader said.
Crop conditions were mixed for last week. USDA said corn crop conditions fell 2 percentage points to 53 percent in the good-to-excellent category. Soy ratings were pegged at 54 percent good to excellent, up 1 point.
Hard and soft red winter wheat basis offers were steady to higher in adjustment to lower futures.
There has been talk that Iraq had been negotiating to buy about 1.3 million tonnes of wheat from the United States and Australia. The amounts were to be split evenly.
Traders were unable to confirm the speculation. "They could be talking to someone here," a trader said, adding that his company however was not involved in any negotiations.
Pakistan bought 50,000 tonnes of Russian wheat for September shipment at $145 per tonne C&F. It was Pakistan's second purchase of Russian wheat this month, traders said.
"There's a lot of cheap wheat around," another trader said, adding that demand for SRW wheat had been flat. "We are seeing some demand in HRW wheat," he said, citing Nigeria.
Hard red winter wheat basis bids in the track market strengthened amid slow movement, traders said. Bids rose 3 to 7 cents per bushel, the traders said.
"Not much 11 percent protein HRW wheat is moving," a trader said. "People are trying to get some wheat into the pipeline maybe because they are expecting some business."
The Commodity Credit Corp has set a tender on Tuesday to buy 29,810 tonnes of HRW wheat for Ethiopia.
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