September 3, 2007

Asia Grain Outlook on Monday: Wheat may continue rise on fundamentals

Prices of imported wheat may continue to gain throughout the week, on an expected rise in Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures.

Wheat futures seem bullish on soaring demand for U.S. wheat exports.

The U.S. is currently the only major wheat exporter in the world, as traditionally big exporters in Europe struggle with crop losses because of unfavorable weather conditions there.

There are also concerns about dry weather conditions affecting the upcoming wheat harvest in Australia.

In Asia, soybean shipments in Chinese ports are undergoing long periods of quality inspections. Commodities analysis firm Shanghai JCI said that although earlier Chinese importers were allowed to unload their soybean shipments while quality inspections were being carried out, that practice has been discontinued.

"Four soybean cargoes, two from the U.S. and two from Argentina, which were rumored to have been rejected from unloading by Chinese government on quality problems, have actually been already unloaded in China after undergoing a comparatively long period of quality inspection," the firm said in an analyst report.

The heightened quality checks have had marginal impact so far on fresh soybean bookings by Chinese traders.

Over the past week, Chinese crushers bought five to six soybean cargoes from the U.S. and South America, slightly lower than six to eight cargoes in the preceding week.

In other news, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture may resume its weekly wheat import tenders this week, after a two-week gap.