North American Grain and Oilseed Review: Strong gains for canola

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures canola contracts finished higher on Tuesday, gleaning strength from gains in the Chicago soy complex.

Additional support came from increases in European rapeseed, while declines in Malaysian palm oil weighed on values.

Dwindling canola supplies remained supportive.

The Prairie weather will soon become a factor with above normal temperatures forecast for the next 10 days. The warmer weather will add to issues already caused by a thin snow cover across much of the region, along with low soil moisture levels.

At mid-afternoon, a stronger Canadian dollar tempered further gains in canola. The loonie was at 79.25 U.S. cents, after closing Monday at 78.98.

There were 19,239 contracts traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when 14,708 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 9,038 contracts traded.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.

Price Change
Canola May 753.10 up 13.70
Jul 715.60 up 10.30
Nov 601.20 up 5.20
Jan 604.10 up 5.30

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were stronger on Tuesday, due to technical buying interest.

Attention is turning to three reports from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), with one being the next supply and demand estimates on March 9. The others are the prospective planting and the grain stocks as of March 1 reports which are scheduled for March 31.

The USDA fats and oils report said nearly 5.35 million tonnes of soybeans were processed in January, which made for the second largest crush on record. Through to January, the 2020/21 crush is 5.6 per cent ahead of last year. As for soyoil, stocks dropped to 2.3 billion pounds.

In South America, wet conditions continued to stymie the soybean harvest in Brazil, while dry conditions in Argentina are likely to reduce production once its harvest gets underway.

CORN futures were higher on Tuesday, due to spillover from soybeans and wheat.

There was a private sale of 175,000 tonnes of corn to Japan, with delivery during for the 2021/22 marketing year.

The monthly grain crush report said 10.56 million tonnes of corn were used for ethanol production in January. That’s a drop of 3.7 per cent from December and down 11.4 per cent from the previous January. Production of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) was 1.59 million tonnes in January and down 2.2 per cent from December.

Corn planting in Texas was reported as being three per cent complete. That’s four points below the average pace.

WHEAT futures were stronger on Tuesday, due to declines in crop ratings.

Wheat in Kansas was reported to be 37 per cent good to excellent condition, which is down three points from last week. Wheat conditions in Texas are at 28 per cent to excellent and 37 per cent in Oklahoma. Both states are down two points from the previous week.

The European Union reported its total wheat exports were at 17.56 million tonnes at this point in the 2020/21 marketing year. That’s an 18.2 per cent drop from a year ago.

The Western Producer

Tags: North American Grain Review, North American Oilseed Review, strong gains for canola