July 24, 2007

 

Tuesday: China soybean futures settle down on CBOT, but decline limited

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Tuesday, dragged down by sharp declines on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soybean contract settled RMB30 lower at RMB3,268 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 143,654 lots from 97,810 lots Monday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

CBOT soybean futures ended sharply lower Monday, plunging to nearly one-month lows as speculative traders trimmed length and extracted a risk premium amid an improved Midwest weather outlook.

 

But traders expect the fall on CBOT to be limited with bullish long-range supply and demand fundamentals.

 

Meanwhile, China's reduced soybean imports will likely help support domestic soybean and soy products futures, while demand from the feedmeal sector is gradually recovering, said traders.

 

Soybean imports in the coming months may fall below 2.4 million tonnes, compared with 2.52 million tonnes in June and 2.96 million tonnes in May, said Huang Xiao, manager of the agricultural products department at Capital Futures.

 

Soymeal futures and soyoil futures both settled lower, tracking the fall in soybean prices.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soymeal contract settled RMB36 lower at RMB2,560/tonne and the benchmark September 2007 soyoil contract settled RMB40 lower at RMB8,086/tonne.

 

Corn futures also settled lower.

 

The benchmark January 2008 contract settled down RMB12 at RMB1,496/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all corn contracts rose to 518,508 lots from 310,868 lots Monday.