June 12, 2007

 

Tuesday: China soybean futures settle down on lower import prices

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Tuesday, pressured by lower imported soybean prices.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soybean contract settled RMB29 lower at RMB3,307 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 289,270 lots from 271,598 lots Monday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

"The settled prices of imported soybean were lower due to large amount of soybean arrivals and ample stocks at (Chinese) ports," said Gu Jianjun, a trader at Jinyuan Futures.

 

China imported 2.96 million metric tonnes of soybean in May, the General Administration of Customs said Tuesday, compared with 2.41 million tonnes during the same period last year.

 

Soybean imports during the first five months of the year totaled 11.34 million tonnes, up 9.2% from a year earlier, preliminary data showed.

 

The monthly import data was within the market's expectation.

 

Soymeal futures settled mixed and soyoil futures settled lower.

 

The benchmark September 2007 soymeal contract settled RMB1 lower at RMB2,529/tonne, while the benchmark September 2007 soyoil contract settled RMB150 lower at RMB7,684/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled lower.

 

The benchmark September 2007 contract settled RMB10 lower at RMB1,636/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all corn contracts rose to 373,494 lots from 313,822 lots Monday.

 

China exported 30,000 metric tonnes of corn in May, Customs said Tuesday.

 

During the first five months, the country exported a total of 3.51 million tonnes of corn, up 55.2% from a year earlier, it said.