BEIJING: Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) extended their rally on Thursday on the prospect of Russia increasing strikes on Kyiv, which could cause further export disruptions in the major global grain-production region.
Corn and soybeans fell. The most-traded wheat contract on the CBOT gained 1.7% at $761-1/2 a bushel at 0203 GMT.
CBOT corn lost 0.3% at $534-3/4 a bushel. Soybeans were down 0.5% at $12.59-1/2 a bushel.
Wheat futures hit their daily limit and set fresh multi-year highs in the last session on news that Russia is considering stepping up ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv.
Russia’s strikes could include targets in the city centre of Kyiv, and on critical infrastructure elsewhere in Ukraine after concluding that efforts to negotiate a peace deal have reached a dead end.
The escalating tensions have cast uncertainty over global availability.
Attacks over the last months have halted almost all grain shipments through the ports in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, which used to account for 70% of all Russian grain exports.
A virtual halt to grain loadings at Russian and Ukrainian Black Sea ports due to tit-for-tat attacks in recent weeks has cast doubt over flows of Russian wheat and Ukrainian corn.
Russian wheat export prices fell last week, but some analysts said the prices were largely symbolic as shipments from southern ports have been virtually halted due to the escalating conflict with Ukraine.
Repair work at NKHP, one of three grain terminals at Russia’s main Black Sea export port of Novorossiysk, could take up to four months following a Ukrainian attack, the company said on Wednesday.
In France, the European Union’s biggest wheat producer,two vessels are due to call at the country in the coming days to load wheat for Egypt, according to shipping data and traders, in another sign of demand shifting due to war disruption to Black Sea routes.
Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, sourced more than 80% of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine in the first half of 2026.
Comments