Friday: China soy futures fall on high supply, credit worries

 

 

Soy futures fell on the Dalian Commodity Exchange Friday, weighed by supply concerns and worries across the commodity complex over monetary policy tightening.

 

The benchmark September soy contract settled 0.2% lower at RMB3,872 a metric tonne.

 

Commodity futures trade continues to be jittery over China's quiet policy moves to slightly tighten credit conditions, which have cast a pall on market sentiment, said Huang Yingyan, an analyst with Nanhua Futures.

 

On the fundamentals front, high soy imports are also weighing on prices, Huang said.

 

The Ministry of Commerce Friday issued its bimonthly estimate showing 3.6 million tonnes of soy are expected to be imported this month, a substantial volume though slightly lower than 4.8 million tonnes in December.

 

"Soy supply is at high levels and U.S. prices relatively low, and that's putting downward pressure on domestic prices," Huang said.

 

Soy spot prices have fallen about RMB10-RMB20/tonne in major northeast producing areas in the week to Friday.

 

Trading volume on Dalian for all soy contracts rose to 302,436 lots from 278,876 lots Thursday.

 

Open interest fell 10,456 lots to 336,292 lots.

 

Corn and soymeal futures also fell Friday, though soyoil and palm oil futures were up.

 

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

 

Product   Contract      Settlement Price     Change      Volume

Soy        Sep 2010      3,872            Dn    6     302,436

Corn       Sep 2010      1,879            Dn   13     202,808

Soymeal Sep 2010      2,863            Dn    9     796,018

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,752            Up   20     789,964

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,388            Up   12   1,170,766