Ukraine corn sees Panamax premium vanish on sell pressure

Values for Ukrainian corn cargoes offered on a panamax port basis and a handysize port basis are being shown at parity to each other for January loadings, as pressure to move cargoes meets thin trading activity, market sources said Friday.

Brokers in the market were said to be quoting panamax port corn cargoes and handysize corn cargoes prices at 77 cents over the front month March CBOT corn futures contract, at parity to each other.

Typically, the difference in loading at a panamax port can amount to a $1-2/mt premium.

“They can be at parity only when people need to sell,” another broker said of the situation, adding that in January that was the case.

“I don’t see any rush on February and March onwards, but at Mykolaiv at one point we had five sellers for January,” the second broker said.

Other market sources questioned that the need to sell was acute enough to see parity, but conceded that corn movements have been thin and Black Sea trading has been quieter than usual as many market participants remain on holiday.

“There’s been a very small programme of corn loadings, so anything can happen,” a trading source said, expecting the market to return to fuller activity in the following week.

Ukraine’s export figures recently revealed earlier this week that corn exports had slumped by 20% year-on-year, with stiff competition from other origins and bottlenecks in the country’s logistics encouraging Ukraine’s farmers to either hang on to their corn or leave it in the fields.

As of January 1, exports stood at 5.8 million mt, down 20.5% on the same point of 2016/17.