Prices for Russian wheat are virtually unchanged, while export quotes for barley have inched up. For the first time in the current season, SovEcon analysts have cut their forecast of Russian wheat exports in MY 2023-24, reducing the estimate by 400,000 t to 48.8 million t.
Trade remains slow on the Kazakh grain market. The situation remains difficult as this season the quality of harvested grain is low due to the rainy fall. Only half of the harvested wheat (about 5 million t) is of milling quality, so the presence of Russian grain will only be growing both on the…… Read more »
Brazilian producers show concerns about weather conditions and their impact on the future safrinha corn crop. According to Safras&Mercado, farmers planted 72.4% of planned areas with first crop corn by October 27 (70.1% last year and an average of 67%).
Wheat prices were pressured by weak demand for US-origin grain, ample supplies from Russia, and favorable rainfall in Argentina and Australia.
EU grain prices have been mostly growing this week, which is not attracting importers. The pace of trade is low, and exports are also dull.
Mixed price trend can be seen on the Ukrainian grain export market. Navigation safety issues along the existing route to the Black Sea ports are limiting export volumes, but trade remains quite brisk.
On the West European market, quotes for imported thermal coal have declined amid moderate pace of trade. Consumers tend to postpone purchases until the situation with natural gas supplies becomes clearer and in anticipation of further price cuts.
Prices for imported iron ore have risen in China mainly due to decreasing stockpiles of the raw material in local ports. Thus, iron ore stockpiles shrank by 250,000 t to 104.9 million t over the week, so now it is the lowest level in the past five years.
Negotiations for the procurement of imported scrap steel have intensified in Turkey after October 25 as local mills had been postponing purchases for too long, and now they face an urgent need in scrap with shipments in November to supply the production at their enterprises.
Trade has been slow on the urea market this week as players were waiting for the results of the Indian tender. On October 26, IPL has purchased about 1.7 million t of urea at $400/t and $404/t C&F India with shipments to the west and east coasts of the country, respectively.