North American Grain and Oilseed Review: More increases for new crop canola

WINNIPEG, June 22 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) canola futures mostly higher on Tuesday with another day of gains in the new crop months.

With temperatures again on the rise across the Prairies, the weather forecast was showing very little prospect of rain outside of the southern areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The lack of precipitation has been stressing the region’s crops.

There were mixed signals from the Chicago soy complex, with soybeans and meal turning lower, while soyoil was on the upswing. As Malaysian palm oil incurred small declines, additional support for canola came from gains in European rapeseed.

At mid-afternoon the Canadian dollar was stronger with the loonie at 81.16 U.S. cents compared to Monday’s close of 80.80.

Nutrien said it will boost its potash production by another 500,000 tonnes in 2021. The fertilizer company announced a similar production increase earlier this month. The latest move comes after the European Union placed fresh economic sanctions on Belarus. Nutrien’s total production this year could top 13.8 million tonnes.

There were 14,340 contracts traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when 20,382 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 5,862 contracts traded.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.

Price Change
Canola Jul 742.30 dn 5.80
Nov 707.90 up 7.70
Jan 709.60 up 7.30
Mar 706.60 up 6.10

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were weaker on Tuesday, due to relatively strong crop conditions despite severe dryness in some major growing areas.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its weekly crop progress report late Monday afternoon, and as of June 20 soybean conditions were 60 per cent good to excellent. That’s a slip of two points from the previous week. Soybeans planted reached 97 per cent complete, up three points on the week and three ahead of the five-year average. Soybeans emerged was at 91 per cent, for a gain of five points and six up on the average pace. The USDA cited the first soybeans blooming of 2021, at five per cent, which was on par with the average.

Dr. Michael Cordonnier of Soybean and Corn Advisor Inc. kept his projections for South American 2020/21 soybean production with Brazil at 134 million tonnes and Argentina at 45 million. Cordonnier also maintained his call on U.S. soybean production for 2021/22 at 50.8 bushels per acre.

Refinitiv Commodities Research (RCR) has projected China to import a record 11.6 million tonnes of soybeans in June and 46.9 million tonnes during the first half of 2021.

CORN futures were weaker as well on Tuesday, in sympathy with soybeans.

The USDA report corn conditions were 65 per cent good to excellent as of June 20, for a dip of three points on the week.

Due to drought conditions in Brazil, Dr. Cordonnier chopped two million tonnes off his call on the country’s 2020/21 corn production at 90 million tonnes. He added 500,000 tonnes to his Argentina forecast at 47 million. The doctor held his projection on 2021/22 U.S. corn production at 177.5 bu/ac.

WHEAT futures were mixed on Tuesday, as drought in the Northern Plains continued to threaten spring wheat.

U.S. spring wheat conditions took a hard fall with a drop of 10 points from the previous week at 27 per cent good to excellent, according to the USDA. Of the six states the department uses to determine spring wheat, Minnesota was tops with 48 per cent good to excellent with South Dakota last at only five per cent. The USDA noted spring wheat headed was at 27 per cent, up 19 points from the previous week and nine ahead of the average.

As for winter wheat, its condition dipped one point at 49 per cent good to excellent and 96 per cent of the crop has now headed. The latter is a gain of four points from last week and is on par with the average. Although the amount of winter wheat harvest more than quadrupled to 17 per cent finished, it’s well back of the 26 per cent average.

The Western Producer

Tags: corn, USDA, soybeans, North American Grain and Oilseed Review, wheat