January 21, 2008

Pakistan may award 610,000-tonne wheat tender

State-run Trading Corp. of Pakistan may award a tender to import up to 610,000 tonnes of wheat later Monday (January 21, 2008), a senior trading company executive in Karachi told Dow Jones Newswires.

He said the government has received a bid to sell 230,000 tonnes of wheat at US$450-$467/tonne from trading house Glencore and it is persuading other bidders to match the price.

The executive said the corporation is basically seeking red wheat from any origin and it is likely that some of the bidders may come around to offering wheat at the US$500-$510/tonne level.

Trading Corp. of Pakistan received 13 bids totaling 1 million tonnes for the tender late Friday.

The highest quoted price by the bidders was at US$653/tonne, cost and freight basis, and the lowest price was quoted at US$450/tonne.