September 19, 2012

South American soy crop export demand to rise in 2013

Oil World foresees strong export demand for South American soy crop in early 2013 which will help relieve tight global supplies following drought damage to US, Brazilian and Argentine soy harvests this year.

"The world market will become more and more dependent on South American supplies in March-September 2013 owing to the prospective substantially-reduced soy stocks in the US, China and many other countries by February 2013," Hamburg-based Oil World said on Tuesday (Sep 18).

Brazil's 2013 soy crop is forecast by Oil World to rise to 82.0 million tonnes from 66.4 million tonnes in early 2012, while Argentina's is seen rising to 56.0 million tonnes from 40.5 million tonnes.

Brazil and the US compete to be the world’s largest soy exporter, with Argentina in third place. Good crops are also forecast in the smaller South American soy producers.

Paraguay's 2013 crop will reach 8.6 million tonnes from 4.5 million tonnes in 2012, Uruguay’s will be 3.1 million tonnes from 2.4 million tonnes and Bolivia's is seen at 2.45 million tonnes from 2.37 million tonnes, Oil World estimates.

But there is concern that dry weather is delaying soy plantings in Brazil and Paraguay, which could reduce the crop, it said.