March 30, 2009

Soybean futures traded on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Monday on declines in local cash prices and in Chicago Board of Trade futures Friday, and expectations of greater supply from the U.S. this year.

 

The benchmark September 2009 soybean contract settled RMB54 a metric tonne lower at RMB3,518/tonne, or down 1.5%.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release its prospective planting and quarterly grain stock reports Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. EDT (12:30 GMT).

 

The market is focused on the reports, which are expected to show an increase in soybean acreage from the level in 2008.

 

Analysts said the market will remain cautious ahead of the reports, and that high amounts of soybean stocks at Chinese ports, at 3.8 million tonnes Monday, also weighed on sentiment.

 

Trading volume of all soybean contracts declined to 201,300 lots from 324,206 lots Friday.

 

Open interest rose 7,310 lots to 329,016 lots Monday.

 

Corn futures, soymeal futures, soyoil futures and palm oil futures all settled lower.

 

Falling soymeal cash prices Monday plagued futures prices.

 

Processing plants found it hard to increase soymeal prices amid weak pork prices and the supply pressure from imported soybeans, Tianqi Futures said in a note.

 

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

Soybean        Sep 2009         3,518        Dn   54      201,300

Corn             Sep 2009         1,696        Dn    6         73,228

Soymeal       Sep 2009          2,641        Dn   74   1,017,794

Palm Oil        Sep 2009          5,400        Dn  100     138,974

Soyoil           Sep 2009          6,288        Dn  110     466,118