| Kippreport.com

Egypt’s GASC buys another 120,000 tonnes of wheat

August 15, 2012 11:50 by Reuters

Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, has bought 120,000 tonnes of Russian and Ukrainian wheat for Sept. 21-30 shipment on a free on board basis, the main government wheat buyer said on Tuesday.

Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), gave the following breakdown of the purchases:

– 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat from Venus at $313 per tonne with freight costs of $10.69 per tonne

– 60,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat from Toepfer at $313.88 per tonne with freight costs of $11.44 per tonne

It was GASC’s second international wheat purchase since the July 1 start of the 2012/13 fiscal year.

Its last such purchase was on Aug. 11, when GASC bought 120,000 tonnes of Russian wheat for Sept. 10-20 shipment

During the 2011/12 fiscal year, GASC’s purchases were also dominated by Black Sea origin wheat.

They included 3.24 million tonnes of Russian wheat, 180,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat, 360,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat, 60,000 tonnes of Russian, Ukraine or Kazakh wheat at the seller’s option and 60,000 tonnes of Russian or Kazakh wheat at the seller’s option.

GASC also bought 300,000 tonnes of French wheat, 300,000 tonnes of Argentine wheat, 530,000 tonnes of U.S. soft red winter wheat and 60,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat in 2011/12.

BIDS

Traders said the following bids were made in tonnes, with dollar price per tonne on a FOB basis unless otherwise stated:

* Louis Dreyfus 60,000 Russian $319.44 * Venus 60,000 Russian $313.00 * Glencore 60,000 Russian $317.82 * Solaris 60,000 Russian $329.23 * Olam International 60,000 Russian $319.25 * Aston 60,000 Russian $319.94 * Bunge 60,000 Russian $321.00 * Alegrow 60,000 Russian $329.90 Novo or 55,000 Russian $327.90 Taman * Ameropa 60,000 Romanian $322.88 * Toepfer 60,000 Romanian $331.78 and 60,000 Ukrainian $313.88 * Cargill 60,000 Russian $319.90 novo, 60,000 Soft Red Winter $344.53 fob Miss. river and 60,000 French $329.58 with Moisture level Max. 14 percent.

Nomani said he would not accept a moisture level above 13 percent or would take a maximum 13.5 percent moisture level in exchange for a discount, but not more than that.

The demand, which traders spoke of in the past month, has unnerved some French traders, who see a further handicap after losing ground in recent years to sellers of Black Sea grain in Egypt’s keenly contested tenders.

(Reporting by Yasmine Saleh, additional reporting by Maha Dahan in Abu Dhabi, Valerie Parent in Paris And Sarah McFarlane in London, editing by Jane Baird)

Tags: Egypt, General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), Nomani Nomani, Ukrainian wheat