January 18, 2008

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle down on CBOT fall; policy concern

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Friday, after their counterparts on the Chicago Board of Trade fell overnight.

 

The benchmark September 2008 soybean contract settled RMB97 lower at 4,652 a metric tonne.

 

Concerns about the government's tightening policies, including the recent price control measures, are still weighing on the market and resulted in the downward correction.

 

"Soybean prices are likely to keep consolidating ahead of the Chinese New Year on sluggish soymeal consumption and a possible fall in (edible) oil prices," said Tu Xuan, an analyst at Shanghai JCI, a grain consultancy firm.

 

Farmers aren't breeding their chickens ahead of the coming holiday due to occasional outbreaks of bird flu, while high soymeal prices are curbing demand from feedmeal processing plants.

 

With the approach of the Lunar New Year holiday, traders are likely to complete their vegetable oil purchases in a week in preparation, and prices are likely to fall afterwards as a result, said some analysts.

 

Palm oil futures, soyoil futures, soymeal futures and corn futures all settled lower.

 

Friday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne and volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):

 

                Contract     Settlement Price  Change     Volume

Soybean   Sep 2008      4,652         Dn    97         1,496,804

Corn        Sep 2008      1,778         Dn     16         565,870

Soymeal   Sep 2008      3,322         Dn    94        928,430

Palm Oil   May 2008      9,984         Dn    132         25,094

Soyoil      May 2008     10,900        Dn    158        615,458