CIF Gulf corn, soya steady; slow movement supports

US CIF Gulf corn and soyabean basis values were mostly steady on Monday, supported by slow farmer selling and some export interest, traders said. Barge freight was steady on the Illinois, lower Ohio and lower Mississippi rivers amid the slow grain movement.
The US Coast Guard declared the area on the Ohio River between mile markers 969 and 976 a safety zone until 8 pm on Monday due to lower water conditions on the river. Traders said barge traffic was not affected by the river conditions.
Traders said grain movement in the eastern Corn Belt remained slow, with farmers there betting that hot and dry weather could continue to rally CBOT futures.
"We went down on Friday and we are back up in the overnight (e-cbot). Farmers are not selling much because they don't know how big a crop they'll have," a river trader said.
He said corn supplies in the export pipeline were adequate. "It's decent. If more corn comes into the pipeline, the basis will likely go lower," he added.
Traders said they were hopeful that the rebound in ocean freight rates to Asia could help bolster export demand.
Ocean freight snapped a losing streak to rebound on the benchmark US Gulf-Japan route, but there was uncertainty over whether rates had hit bottom or would resume to edge lower.
Soybean basis values were steady, supported by slow farmer selling and some export interest.
South Korea has set a tender for Tuesday to buy 40,000 to 60,000 tonnes of US or South American soyabeans for September-October shipment, traders said.
The tender would provide an indication if US new-crop soyabeans, to be harvested from September, are competitive with supplies from Brazil and Argentina.
Hard and soft red winter wheat basis values were mostly steady, Export demand for HRW wheat was steady, but there was a lack of interest in soft wheat, traders said.
Traders shrugged off news that Pakistan purchased 50,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, adding that US exporters would not be able to compete with Black Sea suppliers because of the low production costs in the region.