June 22, 2006

 

European cash wheat up on Indian import tender speculation

 

 

The European cash wheat market was higher Wednesday (Jun 21) on speculation that European wheat might be competitive for India's 2.2 million tonne import tender, traders said.

 

French July-August standard wheat rose EUR1/tonne to EUR111/tonne, basis delivered Rouen, while September-December rose EUR0.50/tonne to EUR112.50/tonne.

 

Eight international bidders include European trading companies, so that European wheat could have been offered, a trader said.

 

However, there was little outright trade. Participants were unsure of new crop quantities and quality and preferred to stay out of the market pending clarity of heat and drought damage in Southern, Central and Western French regions.

 

Rain in the main growing areas in the north and around Paris was thought to have had a beneficial impact.

 

Meantime, data from the French state grains board, National Service Interprofessional des Grandes Culture (ONIGC) forecast a 6-percent rise in the soft wheat crop to 36.9 million tonnes for the 2006/07 crop year.

 

France's harvest will be in "full swing in two weeks' time," Jean-Pierre Bloch from InfoGrain said.

 

In Germany trade was also slow, traders said. German B-quality wheat stood at EUR115/tonne for September, basis delivered Hamburg, unchanged on the day.

 

In futures, French November milling wheat futures traded on Matif were at EUR117/tonne, up EUR0.50 with 744 lots traded.

 

On UK's Liffe market, feed wheat futures settled at GBP75.30/tonne, up GBP0.30 on the day, trading 69 lots.