May 15, 2009
Friday: China soy futures settle up; helped by CBOT rise overnight
Soy futures traded on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Friday, supported by gains on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight.
The benchmark January 2010 soy contract settled RMB52 a metric tonne higher at RMB3,503/tonne, or up 1.5%.
The cost of imported soys at Chinese ports is now between RMB3,400 and RMB3,500/tonne, helping to support domestic soy prices, said Yu Haifeng, an analyst with Tianqi Futures.
A big rise in soymeal prices also helped to support soys. Market expectations that the government may purchase pork pushed soymeal prices higher, as breeders may buy more feedmeal to increase output, some analysts said.
China may start buying pork for state reserves to prevent domestic prices from falling, the Nanfang Daily reported Friday, citing a government official.
However, farmers shouldn't expand hog breeding any further, the report cited an unnamed official from the National Development and Reform Commission as saying.
Last week, the government warned breeders that a rapid surge in hog numbers is leading to excessive supply.
Pork prices have fallen 25% since the start of this year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
Trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 313,076 lots from 167,070 lots Thursday.
Open interest fell 11,964 lots to 334,644 lots Friday.
Corn futures, soymeal futures, soyoil futures and palm oil futures all settled higher.
Edible oil prices rose in the morning session, but edged lower in the afternoon session as traders took profits on earlier gains.
Friday'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
Soy Jan 2010 3,503 Up 52 313,076
Corn Sep 2009 1,679 Up 12 149,276
Soymeal Sep 2009 2,908 Up 98 1,812,174
Palm Oil Sep 2009 6,874 Up 24 447,526
Soyoil Sep 2009 7,656 Up 20 1,292,416
