SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans climbed to their highest levels in almost six weeks on Wednesday, with prices underpinned by concerns over shipments from Brazil, the world’s top exporter.
Wheat fell for the first time in three sessions, although worries over Ukrainian exports limited losses, while corn ticked lower. “Roadblocks in Brazil and strength in the energy market helped support the market,” Hightower said in a report.
“The main access to Brazil’s second-largest port is still blocked.”
The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) most-active soybean contract was up 0.4% at $14.54 a bushel, as of 0254 GMT, after climbing earlier in the session to its highest since Sept. 23 at $14.54-1/2 a bushel.
Wheat gave up 0.2% to $9.01 a bushel and corn fell 0.1% to $6.97 a bushel.
Demonstrators protesting Brazil’s election results have disrupted fuel distribution and meat production, as well as the country’s ability to send grains and oilseeds to port, companies and authorities said on Tuesday.
Blockades were first reported on Sunday amid spreading demonstrations by truckers and other supporters of outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, challenging his narrow election loss to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
CBOT soybeans may test resistance at $14.36-1/2
Soybean production prospects remain strong in Brazil. StoneX commodity brokerage raised its forecast of the country’s 2022/23 soybean crop to 154.35 million tonnes, from 153.8 million previously.
The US soybean harvest is winding down with 88% of the crop cut, as of Oct. 30, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.
The corn harvest was 76% complete. In the wheat market, focus is on Black Sea export corridor after Russia’s withdrawal over the weekend.
A long-term defence is needed for Ukraine’s grain export corridor and the world must respond firmly to any Russian attempts to disrupt it, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as more ships were loading despite Moscow suspending its participation in a UN-brokered deal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on Tuesday that Moscow could consider resuming a deal allowing grain exports from Ukrainian seaports only after completion of an investigation of drone attacks on the Crimean naval port of Sevastopol.
In the United States, dry conditions have hampered the newly seeded US 2023 winter wheat crop.
The USDA on Monday rated 28% of the crop in good-to-excellent condition, the lowest for this time of year in records dating to 1987.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT soybean, wheat, corn and soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday and net sellers of soymeal, traders said.