Monday: China soy futures settle down on CBOT fall; watch government policy

 

 

Soy futures traded on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Monday, following losses on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday.

 

The benchmark May 2010 soy contract settled RMB33 a metric tonne lower at RMB3,557/tonne, or down 0.9%.

 

Expectations of a big U.S. crop and non-threatening weather pushed CBOT soy prices lower Friday, and local news wasn't supportive on Monday.

 

It seems that an earlier drought may not have as much of an effect on soy output in China's northeast major producing areas as had been expected.

 

China's soy output in Heilongjiang, the country's top-producing province, may fall 4% on year, due to a decline in acreage of 4.5%, the province's soy association said Monday.

 

Last year, the province's soy output was 7.52 million metric tonnes, according to data from Heilongjiang Soy Association.

 

Meanwhile, the market is closely watching to see whether the government will continue to purchase soy from the market this year after the coming harvest, which starts this month.

 

The trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 184,774 lots from 231,686 lots Friday.

 

Open interest fell 6,102 lots to 296,638 lots Monday.

 

Corn futures, soymeal futures, soyoil futures and palm oil futures all settled lower.

 

Following are Monday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne for benchmark contracts and volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):

 

             Contract     Settlement  Price  Change     Volume

Soy        May 2010      3,557        Dn     33        184,774

Corn       May 2010      1,742        Dn     6         170,970

Soymeal  May 2010      2,740       Dn     22      1,133,872

Palm Oil  May 2010      5,980        Dn     94        497,486

Soyoil     May 2010      7,022        Dn    114       800,042