Agro Perspectiva

Wheat Shipments From Australia Decline Amid Rising Competition

08.06.2010 14:14 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — Wheat shipments from Australia, the fourth-largest exporter, have slumped amid increasing global stockpiles and competition from lower-cost grain suppliers. Shipments in April were 1.1 million metric tons compared with 1.6 million tons a year earlier, a report on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website showed today. Exports also dropped from 1.4 million tons in March, according to the data. Wheat futures dropped 27 percent in the past 12 months as global supplies gained. Australian producers are competing for overseas markets amid rising competition from lower-priced rivals such as Russia, the third-biggest shipper. «Going forward we still are expecting a sluggish pace of exports if Australian wheat continues to retain this premium that it has,» Commonwealth Bank of Australia commodities strategist Luke Mathews said today by phone from Sydney. «What it’s going to result in is a higher-than-expected build in Australian wheat stocks this year,» he said. Wheat for July delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade was little changed at $4.36 a bushel at 3:21 p.m. Melbourne time. That converts to $160 a ton, based on Bloomberg calculations. Milling wheat for July delivery on the Australian stock exchange traded at A$208 ($170) a ton. August delivery wheat closed at 132 euros ($158) a ton on the NYSE Liffe in Paris on June 4. Exports in the first seven months of the marketing year started Oct. 1 were 7.7 million tons, about 8 percent below the year-earlier pace of 8.4 million tons, based on data from the statistics bureau. Shipping bookings indicated a slump in the Australian dollar in the past month may help boost exports, while there was a risk that economic concerns may curb demand, Rabobank Groep NV commodities analyst Wayne Gordon said by phone from Sydney. «If we see a slowdown in the recovery and global consumption because of this turbulence in the market at this point in time, that will be the sting in the tail,» he said. The Australian dollar traded at 81.56 U.S. cents. The currency reached a five-month high of 93.89 cents on April 12, compared with a five-year low of 60.09 in October, 2008. Australia shipped 14.57 million tons of wheat in the 12 months ended Sept. 30 last year, according to data on the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics website. Exports this marketing year may be 13.6 million tons, Rabobank said in a report last month. The U. S. Department of Agriculture forecast on May 11 that global wheat stockpiles will expand 2.4 percent to 198.1 million tons at the end of the 2010–2011 year, the highest in nine years.