July 23, 2007
Monday: China soybean futures settle down on CBOT fall; demand sluggish
Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly lower Monday, following declines on the Chicago Board of Trade Friday.
The benchmark January 2008 soybean contract settled RMB11 lower at RMB3,298 a metric tonne.
Total trading volume declined to 97,810 lots from 143,076 lots Friday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.
China imported 2.52 million tonnes of soybeans in June, down 31% from a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs said Monday.
During the first half, the country imported 13.85 million tonnes of soybeans, down 1.4% on year, the data showed.
Slow feedmeal demand this year, because of a decline in the hog population due in part to disease, has weighed on soybean demand. In addition, traders expect soybean imports to fall further in July and August, which are traditionally low seasons for soymeal trade as the hot weather makes it difficult to preserve soymeal.
Last week, Chinese traders may have canceled up to four soybean shipments booked in earlier months, according to a report by commodities analysis firm Shanghai JCI Monday.
The report said the cancelations come amid still-high Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures and low demand for soymeal in China.
China's soybean imports remained quite small last week, the report added.
Soymeal futures settled lower and soyoil futures settled mostly slightly higher.
The benchmark January 2008 soymeal contract settled RMB19 lower at RMB2,596/tonne, but the benchmark September 2007 soyoil contract also settled RMB6 lower at RMB8,126/tonne.
Corn futures settled mostly slightly higher.
The benchmark January 2008 contract settled RMB1 higher at RMB1,508/tonne.
Trading volume for all corn contracts declined to 310,868 lots from 380,620 lots Friday.
China imported 81,381 tonnes of soyoil last month, up 25% on year, and exported 160,399 tonnes of corn, sharply up, according to Customs data.
