Egypt’s GASC pays $3 more for Russian and Romanian wheat

Egypt’s state grain buyer was back in the market Thursday, buying 240,000 mt of Russian and Romanian wheat for April delivery for $3 more than it paid nine days ago, according to market sources.

GASC paid an average of $233.71/mt CFR for four 60,000 mt cargoes, up from its previous tender on March 6 when it bought 175,000 mt of Russian wheat for delivery April 5-15 at an average $230.66/mt CFR.

It bought two Russian origin cargoes, one from Aston at $233.36/mt FOB and one from GTCS at $217/mt FOB, with freight to Egypt at $16.39/mt.

It also bought two Romanian cargoes at $218.79/mt FOB from ADM and Cerealcom Dolj with freight at $15.25/mt.

The higher prices paid on both a delivery and origin basis come despite the Black Sea cash market easing off slightly over the past week.

Agricensus' Russian 12.5% protein milling wheat prices had decreased from a marketing-year-high of $208.75/mt FOB Novorossiysk on March 6 to $206.25/mt by Wednesday.

Egypt is one of the world’s biggest wheat buyers, regularly importing over 11 million mt from the international market annually.