July 26, 2007

 

Thursday: China soybean futures settle up on forecasts of lower supply

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Thursday, helped by expectations of lower supplies.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soybean contract settled RMB25 higher at RMB3,306 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 165,056 lots from 81,902 lots Wednesday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

China's pork shortage, which is due part to the outbreak of blue ear disease, has damped feedmeal demand, including soymeal, forcing many processing plants to cancel earlier soybean import contracts.

 

Chinese crushers continue to show quite low interest in fresh soybean buys in the international market, with overall soybean buys this week being quite small, according to a recent research note issued by commodities analysis firm Shanghai JCI.

 

The blue ear disease has spread since June, compared with the first five months of the year, and Chen Weisheng, vice chief at the livestock husbandry department under the Ministry of Agriculture, said Wednesday that tight pork supply in the market will only likely ease at the start of next year.

 

Soymeal futures and soyoil futures settled mostly higher.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soymeal contract settled RMB6 higher at RMB2,565/tonne, and the most heavily traded January 2008 soyoil contract settled RMB60 higher at RMB8,164/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled mostly higher.

 

The benchmark January 2008 contract settled RMB3 higher at RMB1,484/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all corn contracts rose to 546,568 lots from 518,810 lots Wednesday.