February 18, 2008

 

Monday: China soybean futures settle up on CBOT, rising cash prices

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled at new highs Monday, tracking rising cash prices and their counterparts' rise at Chicago Board of Trade Friday.

 

The benchmark September 2008 soybean contract settled RMB55 higher at 4,984 a metric tonne.

 

Soybean prices and soy product prices in major northeastern producing regions surged Monday compared with the weekend.

 

Prices bid by soybean processing plants in Harbin were between RMB4,740 and RMB4,760 per tonne Monday, up RMB120/tonne.

 

Plants have to raise bid prices to compete for limited supplies as stocks dwindle, the China Soybean Network said.

 

Soymeal and soyoil prices also rose, largely due to limited stocks and rising futures prices at CBOT, where soyoil prices ended at new all-time highs Friday, buoyed by optimism that imports from China will increase as a result of its damaged rapeseed crop.

 

Although the Ministry of Agriculture estimated snow storms afflicting southern, central and eastern China damaged 40% of China's rapeseed crop, local industry participants in major producing areas in Hubei province said the damage could be even more extensive.

 

On Monday, the ministry urged provincial departments to take measures to restore production and guarantee supply of major agricultural products following the country's worst snow storms in decades.

 

Snow storms had affected 3.26 million hectares of rapeseed crop, or 48.4% of winter rapeseed crop acreage as of Feb. 14. Of this area, 56.8% or 1.85 million hectares had been damaged, while another 410,000 hectares won't be harvested at all, according to the latest official data.

 

Meanwhile, as stocks of global agricultural products are low and the demand for agricultural products continues to rise as interest in biofuel increases, prices are very likely to rise further and hardly likely to fall, Yide Futures said on its Web site.

 

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

 

Monday'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      4,984         Up     55          767,780

Corn        Sep 2008      1,809         Up    12        1,167,256

Soymeal  Sep 2008      3,554         Up     52          974,224

Palm Oil   May 2008     10,908        Up    226          46,598

Soyoil      May 2008     12,300        Up    240        321,722