Monday: China soy futures settle down on CBOT fall; local demand wanes

 

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Monday, following declines Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB20, or 0.5%, lower at RMB3,908 a metric tonne.

 

The contract opened lower, testing briefly below the RMB3,900/tonne support level in early trade but managing to stay above that level for the rest of the session.

 

Market participants expect Chinese demand to dwindle as imports have been heavy and supply is sufficient.

 

The country imported a record 4.78 million tonnes of soy in December, up 45% from a year earlier. The China National Grain and Oils Information Center said in a report issued Monday that it expects imports of around 4.2 million soy this month.

 

CBOT soy may further test support at $9.50 a bushel, Galaxy Futures said in a note. March soy ended Friday 10 cents lower at $9.74/bushel.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 255,578 lots from 318,852 lots Friday.

 

Open interest increased 5,622 lots to 333,380 lots Monday.

 

Corn futures settled little changed, soyoil futures and palm oil futures settled lower, while soymeal futures settled a tad higher.

 

The government may sell vegetable oils from it reserves to stabilize prices ahead of the Chinese New Year in mid-February, so vegetable oil futures could come under downward pressure, analysts said.

 

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

 

               Contract    Settlement Price  Change     Volume

Soy         Sep 2010      3,908        Dn   20    255,578

Corn       Sep 2010      1,894        Up    1      72,294

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,900        Up    8     807,972

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,808        Dn   60     586,490

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,426        Dn  102    785,648