August 4, 2008
Asia Grain Outlook on Monday: Corn, soybean prices may fall more
Corn and soybean prices may fall more in Asia this week as good weather for crop development in the U.S. is likely to keep the bears in play on the Chicago Board of Trade.
After sharp losses in Friday's pit trade, losses in CBOT soybean and corn contracts continued this morning in electronic trading.
At 0520 GMT, the November soybean contract was down 29.2 cents at US$13.35/bushel, while December corn had fallen 8.6 cents to US$5.76/bushel.
In Asia, soybean buying by the world's largest importer - China - has slowed, with importers only booking around 1 or 2 soybean cargoes last week, mostly from Argentina for September delivery.
Chinese importers are likely to slow their soybean imports in the second half of 2008, after setting a scorching pace of buying in the first six months.
According to Chinese analysts, imports of soybean and vegetable oils in the first half of the year far exceeded demand, and this could cause further losses in soybean contracts traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange.
On Friday, the benchmark January 2009 contract settled RMB145 lower at RMB4,402/tonne.
Oversupply is also causing concern for rice farmers in Vietnam, where paddy is piling up with farmers as they desperately seek buyers, according to the Thanhniennews.com Web site of a Vietnamese daily.
""All farmers are dying to have their rice bought by dealers and businesses, but they didn't come," Le Van Tam, a farmer in the Dong Thap province told the newspaper. Rice harvesting in Vietnam is likely to conclude by the middle of this month.
Truong Thanh Phong, chairman of the Vietnam Food Association told the newspaper that farmers can only sell their rice at a price of VND4,200-4,300 (25-26 U.S. cents) per kilogram, while the cost of production has already reached VND3,500 (21 cents)/kilogram.
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