Asia buyers shun Indian soymeal on high prices

Asian buyers turned to US and South American soymeal supplies this week after Indian prices climbed, while wheat importers were quiet as global markets rose for a second straight week.

 

Southeast Asian soymeal importers booked around 50,000 tonnes of soymeal from the US and Argentina in the past 10 days between US$455/tonne and US$465/tonne for shipment in December and January, traders said.

 

Traders said India priced itself out of the market and that buyers are taking US and South American meal. They added that Indian soymeal costs nearly the same as US soymeal at around US$460/tonne to US$470/tonne, but people will take US soymeal due to better quality.

 

India, which is normally the active selling soymeal from freshly harvested soy at this time of the year, is quoted at a US$10 discount to Argentina and US$15 cheaper than US soymeal.

 

 

Traders said Taiwan's Breakfast Soybean Procurement Association sealed a deal to buy one cargo of soybeans totalling 57,500 tonnes from the US.

 

India continued taking small parcels of wheat in containers with traders reporting more deals for Australian prime wheat at around US$290-US$300 a tonne.

 

But routine wheat buyers in Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand stayed away from the market as global prices climbed nearly 5 percent this week. The rise comes on top of a jump of more than 8 percent last week.