Cash bids in SW Saskatchewan followed the futures markets lower. 1CWRS13.5 spring wheat slipped C$4.48 per tonne on average to be bid at C$234.73 per tonne. On the back of an envelope this would roughly equate to a Newcastle port price of something close to AUD$320 if the destination was Japan. Cash port bids at Newcastle yesterday were about AUD$325 – AUD$330.
Similar US wheat, dark northern spring wheat, out of the Pacific Northwest was bid at about US$3.00 better than the Canadian equivalent. This would come in much closer to our current APH2 type values. Which, I’ll say it again, is probably a little cheap as high quality white wheat should be extracting closer to a AUD$25 premium over the red wheat from N.America. Maybe we’ll see Aussie spreads improve once we know the quality of the crop.
Still converting N.American values, this time 1CWAD13 durum wheat out of SW Saskatchewan. Yesterday saw average cash bids ex farm there rally C$2.77 for a Jan21 lift resulting in an average bid of C$287.38 / tonne. Using an Italian port as a benchmark this would equate to a DR1 price of roughly AUD$405 – $406 delivered Newcastle. Cash bids into Newcastle port yesterday were available at $400, so pretty close to this. Canadian farm to port basis should begin to rise as we move closer to our harvest. Cash bids in SW Sask do tend to be paying a bit of premium for winter loading and there’s potentially C$15 in basis to pick up.
The punters at Chicago walked away from good weekly US export wheat data, (buy the rumour, sell the fact), and took profit on the board. All three US wheat grades were sharply lower by the close. Interesting to see if next week’s WASDE report will throw wheat a life line.