Futures Close Report: 11th January 2018

As Brent crude rallied above $70/barrel for the first time since 2014, the rouble continued to strengthen against the US$ to it strongest level since June 2017 and Russian wheat price was moved up accordingly, increasing $1.25pt.  Russian wheat sales were up 34% yoy at 20.7mt at end December 2017.

Total EU exports since the start of the marketing year in July 2017 are 20% below where they were at the same stage last year, hitting 11mt this week. The recent strength of the euro has not helped, going up 14% versus the US$ in the last 12 months.

Chinese imports of soybeans jumped to the second-highest volume on record in December, according to customs data, December imports by the world’s top soy buyer came in at 9.55 million tonnes, up 10% from the month before and up 6% from December 2016.  China’s imports of the oilseed for all of 2017 hit an annual record of 95.54 million tonnes, up 13.9% from last year’s 83.91 million tonnes.