-Russia yet to compete in Algerian wheat tenders
-USDA reports soybean/wheat sales
-Export Sales solid, except for wheat
It’s an extremely quiet news morning with corn, wheat and soybeans taking a bit of a breather from the ongoing price strength, at least for the moment. This week’s rain/snow will slow late harvest activity for the next week or so, but no major concerns are being expressed given the rapid pace so far.
ï‚· Russia has yet to capture any Algerian wheat business despite their changing of import specifications to allow Russian supplies to compete. It is believed Algeria bought up to 720k tonnes of wheat in their tender this week, all expected to be sourced by France and other EU suppliers for December shipment. Prices paid are thought to be in the $275-$276/tonne c&f range, up considerably from the $263.50/tonne c&f they paid in their 600k tonne purchase a week earlier. Algeria has said they wish Russia would be more aggressive in their pricing, while Russia has expressed its desire for Algeria to further ease the insect damage tolerance to 1%.
ï‚· USDA reported soybean sales this morning of 132k tonnes to unknown and 152k tonnes to Mexico. The sale of 130k tonnes of white wheat to South Korea was also reported this morning.
ï‚· Germany identified another six cases of African swine fever in wild boars, bringing the total number of cases so far to 86. There have not been any cases in pig farms yet, but the import ban on German pork put in place by many countries remains in place. However, German pork is still moving into other EU countries, helping offset the demand loss to Asia and supporting prices, which have not been materially impacted by the ASF cases so far.
 Please see our Market Insights post at https://portal.rjobrien.com/MarketInsights/Blog/Read/41855 for details on today’s USDA Export Sales report.
ï‚· U.S. soybean sales were 2.226 MMT (81.8 million bushels), within market expectations of 1.5-2.5 MMT, but again massively
above year ago sales this week of a paltry 15.0 million bushels, pushing 2020/21 total commitments to 1.666 billion bushels vs
671 million bushels in sales on the books at this time last year. This week’s sales included another 834k tonnes sold to China,
bringing their total purchases so far to 24.9 MMT vs 5.7 MMT a year ago.
ï‚· U.S. corn sales last week rebounded to a solid 1.832 MMT (72.1 million bushels), above market expectations of 800k-1.4 MMT, from the previous two weeks’ sales of 25.8 million and 48.3 million bushels. The jump in sales last week was helped by 434k tonnes to China, bringing their 2020/21 total purchases to 10.5 MMT vs a mere 60k tonnes on the books a year ago.
ï‚· U.S. wheat sales were a bit disappointing at 368k tonnes (13.5 mil bu), falling in the lower portion of market expectations of
200-800k tonnes and down from the previous three weeks’ 18.6-19.5 million bushels.
ï‚· Soybean meal sales were strong at 322k tonnes, at the top end of market expectations of 100-350k tonnes, while soybean oil sales of 37k tonnes topped market expectations of 0-30k tonnes, as well.