US wheat has, once again, been frozen out of an Egyptian tender, which has gone in favour of shipments from Europe and Russia.
Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, said it had split its latest 120,000-tonne order evenly between Russian grain, which Cargill tendered at $189.50 a tonne, and French supplies from Bunge, at $195 a tonne.
The result means the US wheat has, according to records held by Reuters, gone for more than two months without a winning pitch to Egypt, which has bought 2.24m tonnes of the grain through international tender since the start of July.
'Prices not competitive'
The result represented a second setback for US wheat on Thursday, after official export sales data showed shipments of 284,000 tonnes, well below traders' hopes of up to 500,000 tonnes.
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Egypt wheat tender results
Nov 5: 60,000 French ($195), 60,000 Russian ($189.50)
Oct 15: 180,000 French ($189.50)
Sept 29: 150,000 Russian ($170-170.25)
Sept 15: 240,000 Russian ($166)
Sept 2: 180,000 French ($175), 90,000 Russian ($172-173.72), 60,000 US ($168)
Figures: tonnes (price per tonne) |
However, it came as little surprise in Chicago, where a rally fuelled by fund buying has raised wheat prices by nearly 5% this month.
"US wheat prices are not competitive on the world market so they probably won't buy much, if any, US wheat," Vic Lespinasse, the GrainAnalyst.com analyst, said ahead of the tender result.
The cheapest US wheat tendered was at $204 a tonne, by Venus, for the soft red winter variety on a free-on-board basis, according to trader.
Toepfer offered US soft red winter wheat at $219 a tonne.
In Chicago, soft red wheat stood down 9 cents at $5.12 a bushel, equivalent to $188 a tonne, in late trade.
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