Tuesday: China soy futures settle up on soyoil; talk of import curbs

 

 

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Tuesday, led by gains in soyoil amid talk of a curb on imports.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB16, or 0.4%, higher at RMB3,883 a metric tonne.

 

The contract opened higher and traded within a tight range in positive territory for the whole session.

 

The stronger rise in soyoil led soy prices higher following market rumors that the Ministry of Commerce had discussed measures to curb vegetable oil imports due to surplus local supply.

 

China's vegetable oil demand has been weak since the Lunar New Year holiday, while lower global prices have attracted importers, said analysts.

 

The government may use indirect measures such as stronger quality norms for vegetable oil imports to lower shipments, they added.

 

"But the impact is unlikely to be big as any temporary policy will be adjusted once the market situation changes," said Wang Wenfei, an analyst with Wanda Futures' Beijing research and development center, adding the market over-reacted to the rumors as there hasn't been any market-moving news of late.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 216,394 lots from 119,370 lots Monday.

 

Open interest fell 5,924 lots to 335,938 lots Tuesday.

 

Corn, soyoil and soymeal futures settled up, while palm oil futures settled lower.

 

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

 

Product   Contract  Settlement Price  Change     Volume

 

Soy        Sep 2010      3,883        Up   16    216,394

Corn       Sep 2010      1,935        Up    5    109,104

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,849        Up   21  1,503,604

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,868      Down   18    747,262

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,560        Up   62  1,032,924