Egypt's GASC cancels May wheat tender as Russian prices stay high

Egypt’s state grain importer has canceled a wheat buy tender issued for May 1-10 shipment, where the lowest offer made was for Bulgarian-origin wheat, without giving any reason, trade sources have told Agricensus Thursday.

The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) made no purchase in its tender held on Thursday, despite offers of Bulgarian origin wheat being shown at $225.70/mt and $233.77/mt FOB Varna on 180 and 270-days payment terms respectively, and the lowest freight idea at $16.50/mt.

That made it $242.20/mt and $250.27/mt CFR respectively, the cheapest offer on the day.

Apart from Bulgarian origin, Romanian and French were the next most competitive options among the 27 offers placed, while Russian offers were well out of competition with all the selling ideas shown at the unofficial “floor” price of $235/mt FOB for 180-days term and $260/mt for 270-days term.

That is $10/mt lower compared to the previous tender level for a 180-day term and $5/mt down for 270-day term, but was still way above the offers that are seen in the broader market now – with levels at around $200-205/mt FOB NTTK.

Trade sources said that the discrepancy in prices could be the main reason for the cancelation, as with the recent, significant drop in the physical market price, GASC officials were expecting to see lower levels, especially from Russia.

The country is the cheapest world origin right now, but was listed at the highest price among other competitors in the tender.  

At its previous tender, which closed on February 16, GASC booked 180,000 mt of Ukrainian and Romanian-origin wheat paying $255/mt CFR for the April 10-25 shipment.

Details of previous GASC buying can be found on the Tender Dashboard.