GRAINS-Soyoil futures rally to record high; corn hits highest since Aug 2012

U.S. soyoil futures surged to a record high on Wednesday after Indonesia broadened its export ban on raw materials for cooking oil to fight food inflation, traders said.

“The move dramatically tightens an already tight global supply of edible oils that saw global prices surge when the Russian invasion of Ukraine took Ukrainian sunflower oil supplies off the market,” StoneX chief commodities economist Arlan Suderman wrote in a client note.

Indonesia’s chief economic minister said the country was widening the scope of its export ban to include crude and refined palm oil, among other products. Previously, the ban was only set to include refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein.

Corn futures also rallied, with the most-active contract Cv1 hitting its highest in nearly a decade as the weather outlook showed little relief from the cold and wet weather that was keeping growers around the U.S. Midwest out of the fields.

The latest forecast threatened to push corn planting past the ideal window in many areas of the Midwest, which could cause harvest prospects to fall in a year when global grain supplies were already tight.

“We can’t lose acres and we can’t lose yield,” said John Zanker, market analyst at Risk Management Commodities in Indiana.

Chicago Board of Trade July soyoil futures BON2settled up 2.29 cents at 84.72 cents per lb. The contract peaked at its all-time high of 85.77 earlier.

CBOT July soybeans SN2 were 21 cents higher at $16.92-3/4 a bushel.

CBOT July corn CN2ended up 10-3/4 cents at $8.12-1/4 a bushel, after the most-active contract Cv1 hit its highest since August 2012.

Wheat futures were mostly lower, with the benchmark CBOT July soft red winter wheat WN2 down 3-3/4 cents at $10.91-1/4 a bushel.
Source: Reuters (Additionalreporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Mark Potter and David Gregorio)