November 30, 2007

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle down on price-control concerns

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Friday on expectations of more price-control measures by the government.

 

The benchmark September 2008 soybean contract settled RMB82 lower at RMB4,253 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 1,380,346 lots from 1,166,736 lots Thursday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

"Agricultural products are experiencing a deep correction in a bull market" amid concerns over possibly more price-control measures by the government, said Zeng Xuezhou, analyst at Beite Futures Co.

 

Among a recent series of measures, China will release at least 2 million tonnes of corn into non-producing regions to curb surging feedmeal prices, and it has been increasing the volume of wheat it sells during its weekly auctions.

 

The country will auction 3.5 million tonnes of wheat next Wednesday, 1 million tonnes more than what it planned to sell this week.

 

However, Zeng expects the benchmark September 2008 soybean contract to be strongly supported at levels between RMB4,000-RMB4,100/tonne, as overall supply remains tight.

 

Palm oil futures and soyoil futures settled mostly lower, while soymeal futures and corn futures also settled lower.

 

Friday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne and volume in lots:

 

                   Contract    Settlement Price     Change            Volume

 

Soybeans     Sep 2008      4,253                       Dn  82              1,380,346

 

Palm Oil       May 2008      8,512                       Dn  12              12,666

 

Soyoil          May 2008      9,236                       Dn 112             3,464,240

 

Soymeal      May 2008       3,241                      Dn  93              997,528

 

Corn            May 2008       1,756                      Dn  18              945,928