SINGAPORE – Chicago soybean futures edged higher on Tuesday as strong demand led by top importer China underpinned the market, but a rapidly progressing US harvest curbed gains.
Wheat rose after closing Monday lower on pressure from crop-friendly rains in the drought-hit US plains.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) added 0.2 percent to $13.84-1/4 a bushel, and corn was flat at $6.81-1/2 a bushel.
Wheat rose 0.1 percent to $8.39-1/4 a bushel.
US weekly soybean export inspections topped trade estimates as shipments through Pacific Northwest terminals accelerated and Gulf Coast loadings were stronger than anticipated.
Corn inspections, however, remained lighter than normal for the season and wheat inspections were below trade estimates.
China’s soybean imports in September rose 12 percent from a year earlier to 7.72 million tons, customs data showed on Monday, reversing a months-long trend of low arrivals.
September imports were up from 6.88 million tons a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed, and also higher than August imports of 7.17 million tons.
The US soybean harvest was 80 percent complete as of Sunday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a weekly progress report on Monday, ahead of the average estimate of 77 percent in a Reuters analyst poll, and the five-year average of 67 percent after a week of mostly clear skies helped speed fieldwork.
The US corn harvest was 61 percent complete, the USDA said, ahead of the five-year above of 52 percent but just behind the average analyst estimate of 62 percent.
In South America, the planting of Brazil’s 2022/2023 soybean crop reached 34 percent of the estimated area, against 24 percent in the previous week and 38 percent in the same period last year, according to a survey by AgRural on Monday.
The European Union’s crop monitoring service MARS on Monday reduced further its forecast for this year’s drought-affected EU maize harvest, but pointed to mostly favorable sowing conditions for winter cereals.
The grains market is closely watching the pace of crop exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports ahead of the expiration next month of a wartime shipping corridor deal.
