Wednesday: China soy futures settle up; USDA report in focus

 

 

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Wednesday, with traders being cautious ahead of a possible favorable U.S. Department of Agriculture report to be released tonight.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB19, or 0.5%, higher at RMB3,902 a metric tonne.

 

The contract opened higher along with the gains on Chicago Board of Trade overnight but failed to get more upward momentum despite market rumors of China curbing soyoil imports through tighter quality standard controls.

 

The market was abuzz with talk that the government may require all imported soyoil to have a maximum solvent residue level of 100 parts per million, and that cargoes exceeding the level wouldn't be allowed to be unloaded at the ports.

 

But as the market has digested the rumor yesterday, and no formal government document was released, the focus remained on USDA's planting area report, Galaxy Futures said in its note.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 336,362 lots from 216,394 lots Tuesday.

 

Open interest rose 6,318 lots to 342,256 lots Wednesday.

 

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

 

Following are Wednesday'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      3,902        Up   19    336,362

Corn       Sep 2010      1,931      Down    4    106,824

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,851        Up    2    802,224

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,880        Up   12    368,058

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,604        Up   44  1,035,316