US Midwest corn, soyabeans mostly steady

Spot basis bids for corn and soyabeans held mostly steady around the US Midwest on Friday as farmers stayed on the sidelines after selling small portions of their crops earlier this week, grain merchants said. Bids for both commodities were firm at a terminal along the Mississippi River, supported by growing export demand and thin supplies at the US Gulf.
But corn bids eased on the Illinois River, where barge freight costs continued to climb amid a lack of empty vessels. Bids were flat at interior processors, elevators and ethanol plants, with pressure from a recent uptick in country sales offset by relatively slow grain movement of recent weeks. Ohio ethanol makers have rejected corn from that state containing vomitoxin, the byproduct of a fungal disease usually found in wheat, and corn prices rose further on the hot US cash market, merchants and farmers said.