Friday: China soy futures tad down; consolidate ahead of USDA report

 

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly lower Friday as the market consolidated ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's September crop report due Friday.

 

The benchmark May 2010 soy contract settled RMB8 lower at RMB3,612 a metric tonne.

 

The USDA is scheduled to release its Seaptember report at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), with many analysts expecting it to raise its output estimate for soy this year.

 

A mixed performance on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight also provided little trading guidance for the DCE.

 

China imported 3.13 million tonnes of soy in August, down 18% on year and the second lowest volume so far this year due to ample stocks from earlier imports.

 

Trading volume for all soy contracts declined to 132,728 lots from 302,300 lots Thursday.

 

Open interest fell 6,520 lots to 293,788 lots.

 

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

 

Ample stocks from earlier imports and lukewarm demand have pushed local vegetable oil cash prices lower recently.

 

"The market needs to digest earlier (imports)," said Xiao Jun, an analyst with commodities consultancy Shanghai JCI.

 

Meanwhile, an expected good U.S. soy harvest also pressured the outlook for soyoil prices, said analysts.

 

Friday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne for benchmark contracts and the volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):

               Contract     Settlement Price  Change     Volume

Soy         May 2010      3,612        Dn     8          132,728

Corn        May 2010      1,732        Dn    11         238,950

Soymeal  May 2010      2,769        Dn    11         843,976

Palm Oil   May 2010      6,026        Dn    36         383,686

Soyoil      May 2010      7,080        Up     8          594,822