December 14, 2007

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle mostly lower on CBOT fall

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly lower Friday after Chicago Board of Trade soybeans fell overnight.

 

The benchmark September 2008 soybean contract settled RMB32 lower at RMB4,474 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume declined to 437,734 lots from 645,362 lots Thursday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

"Soybean prices face the risk of a downward correction, as large-scale purchases ahead of the year-end holidays are almost completed," said Xia Tian, an analyst at Yongan Futures, adding CBOT's performance is likely to be stronger than that of domestic agricultural products in the near term.

 

Concern over the government's tightening measures also weighed on the market.

 

Cao Changqing, director of the price department under the National Development and Reform Commission, said Thursday during an online question and answer session on the government's Web site that China will strengthen its control measures to guarantee stability in grain prices.

 

China's rising food prices drove on-year growth in the consumer price index to an 11-year record high of 6.9% in November, and the government's increase of corn, rice and edible vegetable oil supplies has shown some effect in cooling food prices.

 

However, strong demand helped push vegetable oil prices higher.

 

Five government departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission, recently required big and mid-sized cities to increase vegetable oil reserves needed for emergencies and guarantee the market supply for at least 10 days, to meet demand ahead of the year-end holidays.

 

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

 

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

 

                Contract      Settlement Price  Change     Volume

Soybeans  Sep 2008      4,474         Dn       32        437,734

Corn         May 2008      1,736         Dn        9        247,990

Soymeal   Sep 2008      3,363         Dn       14       1,026,414

Palm Oil    May 2008      8,702         Up        8          20,734

Soyoil       May 2008      9,652         Up        4          92,404