March 8, 2012
Iran purchases 100,000 tonnes corn, soymeal
An international tender to purchase 100,000 tonnes each of corn and soymeal has been issued by Iran's state-owned animal feed group SLAL, European traders said on Wednesday (Mar 7).
The bidding deadline was March 12 and shipment was in April. The tender continues a surge of grain imports by Iran in recent weeks.
In the last month, Iran has bought or tried to buy nearly three million tonnes of wheat on fears US and EU sanctions imposed over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme will disrupt imports.
In late January as much as 400,000 tonnes of Iranian grain imports, including large volumes of animal feed, were being held up on 10 vessels outside Iranian ports as EU sanctions froze the assets of Iran's central banks and held up payments for consignments.
Traders said on Tuesday that the delayed ships had now sailed with many cargoes resold to other countries.
"This would leave Iran with a continued hole in its feed import needs," one European trader said.
Iran's state grains agency the Government Trading Corporation of Iran (GTC) is continuing talks about buying several hundred thousand tonnes of Russian, Brazilian and Indian wheat, European traders said.
No major new wheat deals were reported so far this week although new purchases are still expected.
"Russian and Brazilian wheat are the main competitors for Iranian business this week with Russia still having a US$5 a tonne freight advantage," one trader said.
The GTC is not issuing formal tenders but is contacting trading houses directly about purchases, dealers said. On March 1 the USDA revealed that Iran had made a rare purchase of 120,000 tonnes of US wheat.
"There is an expectation that more US wheat has been bought by Iran," another trader said.
Iran has asked to import a million tonnes of wheat from Pakistan in a barter deal and also approached India. Iran has also bought nearly two million tonnes of wheat in February from Russia, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Australia.
