North American Grain and Oilseed Review: Jump in soyoil pushes up canola

WINNIPEG, April 16 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) canola futures were higher on Friday, several of the active months finished near their highs.

Sharp gains in Chicago soyoil spilled over into canola. Increases in European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil provided additional support.

Despite the rolling out of the May contract, it ended the week on the stronger note, as tight supplies continued to push the rise of old crop values. Dry conditions across the Prairies underpinned the significant increases in the new crop values.

There is speculation that more canola acres could be seeded this spring than initially anticipated. Statistics Canada is schedule to release its first survey-based planting projections for 2021 on April 27.

After flirting with 80 U.S. cents earlier today, the Canadian dollar was at 79.95 at mid-afternoon, compared to Thursday’s close of 79.81.

There were 26,749 contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 22,049 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 13,454 contracts traded.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.

Price Change
Canola May 833.40 up 4.10
Jul 769.90 up 9.50
Nov 651.90 up 10.10
Jan 652.60 up 10.00

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were stronger on Friday, with double-digit increases due to the pace of exports.

As of the week ended April 8, total United States soybean commitments were at 60.76 million tonnes, which was 98 per cent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) projections. With four and half months remaining in the 2020/21 marketing year, those commitments are very likely to be exceeded.

There has been a great deal of speculation that soybean planting in the United States is apparently proceeding at a strong pace. The USDA releases its weekly crop progress report on Monday, with soybeans to appear for the first time in 2021. Futures International has predicted soybean planting at two per cent complete, which would be double from last year.

The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange (BAGE) kept its prediction of Argentina’s soybean crop at 43 million tonnes.

Rapeseed production in Germany has been projected to increase 1.6 per cent from last year at 3.57 million tonnes, according to the German association of farm co-operatives, Deutscher Raiffeisenverband (DRV).

CORN futures were slightly lower on Friday, due to the weather forecast calling for precipitation over a number of corn-growing areas in the U.S.

Corn export sales to date amount to 66.81 million tonnes, which is 98.3 per cent of USDA projections. With the slowing pace of exports lagging, there are questions about the shipment of some sales being delayed until 2021/22.

The BAGE raised its projection for the Argentina corn crop by nearly one million tonnes at about 46 million tonnes.

WHEAT futures were narrowly mixed on Friday, with small gains for Kansas City and Minneapolis and small declines for Chicago.

Russia said its naval exercises on the Black Sea near Crimea won’t impede commercial vessels passing through the Kerch Strait, an important trading passage. The wargames are seen as a response to the U.S. sending naval forces to the Black Sea as a show of support for Ukraine, as tensions between that country and Russia are very tense.

France reported its soft wheat conditions fell two points on the week at 83 per cent good to excellent. Cold temperatures across much of Europe, including frosts, have posed a challenge to crops.

The Western Producer

Tags: canola, North American Grain and Oilseed Review, USDA