October 31, 2007

 

Wednesday: China soybean futures settle mostly lower on CBOT fall

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly lower Wednesday on the weak performance of their counterparts at Chicago Board of Trade overnight.

 

The benchmark May 2008 soybean contract settled RMB23 lower at RMB4,383 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 999,072 lots from 789,664 lots Tuesday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

Soybean prices have been surging recently, which could threaten the profits of soyoil processing plants and curb soybean demand later on, said Jilin province Grain Administration in an analysis article published on its Web site.

 

Domestic soybean cash prices were up on the concerns of limited supply, a result of an output cut this year.

 

In Qiqihaer city in Heilongjiang province, the major soybean producing region, soybean prices were at around RMB3,900/tonne Wednesday, up RMB40/tonne from Tuesday, according to data from China Soybean Network.

 

China's newly-listed palm oil futures contracts settled mixed in its third session, as traders think the current levels are "appropriate" compared with cash prices, said Kang Bing, the research manager at Jingyi Futures Co.

 

The back-month contracts hit limit up, catching up with earlier gains of their front-month counterparts, which were mostly lower Wednesday.

 

The most heavily traded May 2008 palm oil contract settled at RMB8,530/tonne, down RMB78/tonne from Tuesday.

 

Total trading volume for all palm oil futures declined to 6,334 lots from 23,860 lots Tuesday.

 

Soymeal futures settled mostly higher, but soyoil futures settled mostly lower.

 

The benchmark May 2008 soymeal contract settled RMB5 higher at RMB3,332/tonne, and the benchmark May 2008 soyoil contract settled RMB44 lower at RMB8,866/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled lower.

 

The benchmark May 2008 contract settled RMB6 lower at RMB1,706/tonne.

 

With a large amount of new corn scheduled to arrive on the market from mid-November, prices are likely to be lower, as traders may slow their purchases this year due to ample stocks, said Feng Lichen, the manager of

Chicorn Network, a corn consultancy Web site.

 

Total trading volume for all corn futures declined to 993,338 lots from 1,367,010 lots Tuesday.