April 4, 2011

 

Japan's demand sustains Indian soymeal; wheat trade moderate

 

 

Japan shipped around 60,000 tonnes Indian soymeal last week, a recovery in demand after the twin earthquake and tsunami disasters, but import enquiries waned from major Asian wheat importers who have stocked up on the grain.

 

There had been expectation that soymeal exports from India, Asia's leading supplier, would have been hit due to poor demand from Japan, which imports an average one million tonnes of the feedstock from the south Asian nation.

 

Last month, a senior industry official had said India's oil meal exports to Japan, Asia's top feed stocks market, was likely to halve in March due to uncertainty over shipments to the disaster-hit nation.

 

Japan bought four to five vessels of Indian soymeal at US$435-$439 per tonne, including cost and freight, said Vijay Shrishrimal, managing director of top exporter K.N. Resources Pvt Ltd.

 

The cargoes are for April-May delivery. "Surprisingly, demand from Japan is back to normal now. It seems that the fear of a dramatic fall in demand from Japan was largely misplaced. In fact, we have had not a single default, cancellation or diversion of contracts," Shrishrimal said.

 

He said Japan was likely to import 1.2 million tonnes of the animal feed from India in the new season from October 1, marginally higher than 1.1 million tonnes a year earlier.

 

India had exported 2.6 million tonnes of soymeal between October 1 and February 28, up from 1.3 million tonnes in the year ago period, industry officials said.

 

Major Asian wheat importers remained on the sidelines as most of them had stocked up the grain.

 

Some traders said wheat importing countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia had stocks to last until September, while a few said import demand was expedited to remain subdued until June.

 

"There is not much activity. It has been very quiet as most importing countries have covered themselves until the current quarter," a Singapore-based trader said.

 

Another said that some countries had covered themselves until September.

 

Japan, a regular importer of wheat, said it would buy 5.11 million tonnes of the grain in the year to March 2012, down 5% from a year earlier.

 

Traders said rising wheat prices could also have dissuaded some importers.

 

Cash prices were lower. Australia's prime wheat was offered at US$350 a tonne, free on board, a loss of US$30 from last week. Australian standard wheat was quoted at US$340 a tonne.

 

US standard white wheat was at US$320 per tonne, dark northern spring wheat at US$450 and hard red winter at US$360.

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