Soybeans Reach One-Week Low as Harvesting Progresses in Brazil

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans reached a one-week low in Chicago on a progressing harvest in Brazil, poised to be this year’s biggest grower of the oilseed, and speculation demand for the U.S. crop will weaken.

Brazil’s harvest was 48 percent complete by March 8, Safras & Mercado reported this week. About 11.9 million metric tons of soybeans and soy products were scheduled for shipment at leading Brazilian ports as of yesterday, according to SA Commodities and Unimar Agenciamentos Maritimos. A report today may show lower export sales of U.S. soybeans, according to analysts.

“With the harvest in Brazil advancing, there’s still quite a lot of room for more supplies to come into the market,” Joyce Liu, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte, said by phone from Singapore. “That’s definitely putting pressure on prices.”

Soybeans for delivery in May dropped 0.5 percent to $14.40 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 12:37 p.m. Paris time. Prices reached $14.3675, the lowest for a most-active contract since March 4, after falling 2.2 percent in the past two days.

U.S. export sales of soybeans probably slid to a range of 225,000 to 475,000 tons in the week to March 7, from 609,702 tons a year earlier, according to four analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The government is set to release the sales report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington today. Soybean prices in Chicago are up 6.7 percent from a year ago.

Price Competition

“Brazilian beans are now being offered at prices competitive enough to U.S. supplies, despite a backlog of shipments,” Arnaud Saulais, a broker at Starsupply Commodity Brokers in Nyon, Switzerland, wrote in a note to clients.

Corn for delivery in May slipped 0.1 percent to $7.0975 a bushel. Soybeans cost 2.03 times the price of the grain, against an average of 2.43 times in the past decade.

Wheat for delivery in May rose 0.2 percent to $7.115 a bushel, poised for a sixth advance in a row. Milling wheat for the same delivery month traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris added 0.3 percent to 233.75 euros ($302.23) a ton.

Hard, red winter wheat was 52 cents a bushel cheaper than yellow corn yesterday at ports near Kansas City, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data compiled by Bloomberg. Wheat was on average $1.57 costlier than corn in the past decade. Both grains can be used in feed for animals.

--With assistance from Jeff Wilson in Chicago and Daniel Grillo in Sao Paulo. Editors: Dan Weeks, John Deane.