China continues to be hungry for US soy

22-Oct-2021 - Last updated on 22-Oct-2021 at 12:34 GMT

This week started in a slightly bearish way, with data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) indicating that, post-WASDE, managed money funds had been reducing the number of long positions held across corn, wheat and soybeans, reported CRM Agri.

They were thus becoming less bullish.

However, by Tuesday, the crop progress data released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) highlighted slow US corn and wheat harvest progress, with both sectors falling well behind last year’s pace and providing a more bullish catalyst for what was a bullish mid-week global grain market, according to the UK-based analysts.

Wednesday then recorded further bullish US official data, with ethanol production continuing to recover and reach near-record levels of weekly production, while the vegetable oil market continued to make gains, providing support to the entire vegetable oil complex, especially rapeseed, read a CRM Agri report.

Export demand

“Completing the bullish run of official data, was confirmation of a strong week of US corn and soybean exports.

“China continues to be hungry for US soy, and after a fairly slow start to the season, 2.9Mt of export sales (1.9Mt to China ) has added more confidence for soybean demand.

“Corn sales were also impressive with 1.3Mt of sales, and commitments are at record levels for this point in the season.”

crm agri data — Thursday October 21, 2021 pricing data © CRM Agri

Soybean and corn planting in Brazil

Although the majority of official data releases this week have been providing support to markets, soybean and corn planting in Brazil is getting off to a good start, noted the oilseed and grain market specialists.

Meanwhile, although the pace of winter sowing remains behind last season, Russia has been showing signs of closing the deficit, added the CRM Agri team.