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UK wheat area set to fall following heavy rains

The UK wheat area for this summer’s harvest is expected to be its smallest since 2020 following heavy rainfall during autumn and winter, Britain’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board said on Friday. The AHDB planting survey showed the UK wheat area would be down 15%, compared with the previous summer, at 1.46 million hectares. “All parts of the UK have suffered. The East Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber are reported as the worst affected, with notable flooding in these areas,” the AHDB said. Other predominately winter planted crops declined, ...

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Copper hits 11-month highs on supply concerns, China data

Copper prices hit 11-month highs on Monday as worries about supplies due to mooted production cuts in China,above consensus industrial production data from the top consumer and a softer dollar triggered buying. A rare agreement by China’s copper smelters to cut output last week is fuelling a rally that has propelled copper prices to 11-month highs of $9,138.5 a metric ton CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange (LME). On the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) prices of the metal used in the power and construction industries SCFcv1 hit a record high ...

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Wheat rises after Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports

Chicago wheat rose on Monday, recovering from last week’s losses as Russia’s weekend attacks on Ukrainian ports supported prices. Corn rose partly on worry about dryness in the U.S. while large Brazilian export supplies weakened soybeans. Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat Wv1 rose 1.4% to $5.36-1/4 a bushel at 1146 GMT. Wheat fell 1.7% last week to around 3-1/2 year lows on plentiful world supplies and slack import demand. Soybeans Sv1 fell 0.4% to $11.92-3/4 a bushel while corn Cv1 rose 0.2% to $4.37-3/4 a bushel. Russian air attacks ...

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Dalian iron ore extends fall on demand concerns; upbeat China data caps losses

Dalian iron ore futures prices dipped further on Monday amid lingering concerns about demand in top consumer China, although some upbeat data renewed hopes for a pick-up in steel demand and capped the losses. The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 ended morning trade 0.44% lower at 792 yuan ($110.04) a metric ton, following an 11% on-week drop last week. Tepid near-term ore demand remained a headwind to both sentiment and ore prices, said analysts. Average daily hot metal output among Chinese steelmakers surveyed ...

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Wheat on track for third weekly drop on supply pressure

Chicago wheat futures edged higher on Friday, with the market still on track for a third weekly decline on pressure from Chinese buyers cancelling shipments amid plentiful global supplies. Corn and soybeans slid. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was unmoved at $5.35-1/2 a bushel as of 1215 GMT, while corn lost 0.2% to $4.33 a bushel and soybeans Sv1 shed 0.7% to $11.87 a bushel. For the week, wheat was down 0.5%, having lost 6% in three weeks. Corn was down 1.4%, while soybeans ...

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French soft wheat crop rating slips, spring barley sowing picks up

The state of French soft wheat crops declined slightly last week to remain at their worst in four years, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed on Friday, as fields remained soggy after a wet winter in the European Union’s biggest grain producer. Some 66% of French soft wheat was rated as being in good or excellent condition by March 11, down from 68% a week earlier, FranceAgriMer said in a cereal report. That was the lowest rating for the period since 2020, when 63% of soft wheat was rated good/excellent ...

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Palm oil eases but logs fourth weekly gain

Malaysian palm oil futures were largely unchanged onFriday, but logged a fourth straight weekly gain on concerns over extreme weather conditions affecting yields. The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended down 2ringgit, or 0.05%, at4,293 ringgit ($913.02). The contract gained4.86% for the week, its highest weekly jump since Jan. 12. Weather concerns and lower yields are the two main catalysts behind the recent rally in Malaysian palm oil futures, said Paramalingam Supramaniam, director at Selangor-based brokerage Pelindung Bestari. “Overall, supply constraints ...

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Aluminium giant Rusal’s profit slumps on subdued prices despite higher sales

Russia’s Rusal boosted physical aluminium sales last year thanks to Asian markets, but low prices caused its net profit to slide 84%, the world’s largest aluminium producer outside China said on Friday. Although Rusal itself is not a target of Western sanctions, its production costs have surged after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. While there are no sanctions on Russian aluminium, some Western consumers are shunning new deals for metals made in Russia. Rusal’s aluminium sales rose 6.6% to 4.2 million metric tons in 2023, driven by ...

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Hot money pushes copper to new highs

Fund buying propelled copper prices to new highs on Friday, but some investors and analysts were cautious about possible output cuts in China and whether the rally would be sustained. Shanghai copper prices hit a record high and prices in London touched an 11-month peak after Chinese smelters agreed to trim production in the face of weak profits and losses. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 advanced 1.4% to $9,012 per metric ton in official open-outcry trading after hitting $9,066.50, the highest since April 2023. The most-traded ...

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Soil moisture for Argentina’s soybean crop improves after rains

The percentage of Argentine soybean plantings with optimal-to-excellent soil moisture grew to 77% in the last week, boosted by recent rains, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Thursday. Argentina is one of the world’s top exporters of processed soybeans, and the exchange estimates the 2023/24 harvest at 52.5 million metric tons. In the nation’s main growing region, “nine out of every 10 hectares are in normal-to-excellent crop condition,” according to the exchange. It added that 69% of the late-planted soy crop had adequate moisture conditions while it was in ...

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Ukraine sows 128,100 ha of 2024 spring crops, ministry says

Most of Ukraine’s regions have started 2024 spring sowing, seeding the 128,100 hectares of spring wheat, peas, barley and oats, the agriculture ministry said on Friday. The ministry did not give sowing plans for this year. Last month it said that farmers were expected to reduce the area sown with corn by 9% year on year. Ukraine is a major global grain and oilseeds producer but its harvests have decreased since Russia invaded and occupied significant swathes of territory. Ukrainian farmers sowed a total of 12.75 million hectares of spring ...

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Iron ore loses over 10% on week as feeble demand, rising stocks weigh

Iron ore futures prices tumbled further on Friday to a more than six-month low, on track for a weekly drop of more than 10%, amid sluggish spot buying appetite and bleak demand prospects in top consumer China. The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 3.46% lower at 781.5 yuan ($108.61) a metric ton, the lowest since Aug. 22, 2023. It posted a weekly drop of 11%. The benchmark April iron ore SZZFJ4 on the Singapore Exchange was 4.1% lower at $99 a ...

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French soft wheat crop rating slips, spring barley sowing picks up

The state of French soft wheat crops declined slightly last week to remain at their worst in four years, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed on Friday, as fields remained soggy after a wet winter in the European Union’s biggest grain producer. Some 66% of French soft wheat was rated as being in good or excellent condition by March 11, down from 68% a week earlier, FranceAgriMer said in a cereal report. That was the lowest rating for the period since 2020, when 63% of soft wheat was rated good/excellent ...

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Australian farmers should favour wheat over canola as margins recover, Rabobank says

Australian farmers should make significantly more money on their crops in 2024/25 than in the previous season thanks to a drop in fertiliser and chemical prices, with plantings likely to favour wheat over less profitable canola, Rabobank said on Thursday. Australia is one of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters. Dry conditions last year hit crop yields but a swing to wetter weather heralds bigger harvests in the coming season and farmers have become more optimistic. Rabobank said the cost of fertiliser and agrochemicals could be as much as 20% lower ...

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China lithium boom slows as sagging prices batter high-cost miners

A slump in the price of lithium, a key raw material in electric car batteries, is dragging on China’s mining of the ultralight metal which together with a costly extraction process is prompting a reassessment of output growth and new project plans. Softening EV demand has knocked down global lithium prices, with a basket tracked by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence plunging more than 80% in the past 12 months. That has already forced many producers worldwide to shutter production and cut jobs. In China, which accounted for about a quarter of ...

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