EU wheat, rapeseed at fresh highs in grain surge

PARIS: Euronext wheat and rapeseed climbed further on Thursday to set new contract highs as a grain market rally continued with support from supply concerns and short-covering in nearby futures, traders said. September milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled up 7.50 euros, or 3.5%, at 220.75 euros ($265.10) a tonne, after earlier reaching a new life-of-contract peak at 222.00 euros.

Chicago wheat climbed more than 5% to surpass the $7 a bushel mark for the first time since May 2014, while corn and soybeans jumped by their daily limits to new multi-year highs. Cold weather in the United States has sparked worries about damage to wheat crops and delays to corn and soybean planting, threatening to further erode near-term grain supplies.

“We’re seeing the effect on wheat of what’s happening in corn and oilseed markets,” a futures dealer said.

“It’s also difficult to tell if we’re going to have ample wheat supply in Europe or not enough.”

Tightening end of season supply and short-covering due to position limits in the run-up to expiry again fuelled volatile gains in front-month wheat and rapeseed on Euronext.

May wheat settled up 3% at 238.50 euros after setting a new contract high at 240 euros. In rapeseed, the May contract, which expires next week, ended up 6% at 595.25 euros, after briefly spiking to 605.00 euros, a record for a front-month price.

Rapeseed also remained supported by tensions in global oilseed markets and concern about weather damage in Europe. New-crop August rapeseed set a new contract high at 510.25 euros before settling up 1.3% at 509.00 euros. On physical markets, traders were turning attention to this summer’s new harvest.

Chinese buyers are thought to have booked at least half a million tonnes of new-crop French wheat, as China looks to cover grain import needs heightened by a domestic corn deficit, traders said. German traders said old-crop activity was waning.

“Purchase interest in the old crop in the Hamburg market is very low with another exporter withdrawing purchase offers this week,” one German trader said.