Markets

Australian Jan wheat shipments at 2.4Mt follow strong Dec: ABS

Liz Wells, March 12, 2021

CBH Group’s Albany terminal broke its grain-shipment record in December, contributing to a national wheat figure which was slightly ahead of January’s. Photo: Southern Ports

AUSTRALIA exported 2,437,890 tonnes of wheat in January, down 2 per cent from 2,484,740t shipped in December, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Indonesia with 547,665t followed by The Philippines on 336,858t and Vietnam on 248,971t were the biggest buyers of January-shipment wheat.

Market Check head of strategy Nick Crundall said January was the second consecutive month of big volumes.

“It’s unlikely to be the last, given we have such a large exportable surplus to ship this season,” Mr Crundall said.

Backing this up is USDA data released overnight that has increased the estimate of Australia’s 2020-21 wheat export to 22 million tonnes (Mt), up from 20Mt forecast last month.

“When we dig into the data, Western Australia was the major contributor which is of little surprise, while Indonesia was the largest importer of our wheat for the month.

“This was closely followed by The Philippines and Vietnam, while Chinese volumes dropped off to 167,754t after a very strong December.

“Containers were impressive, but still below what we managed to churn out in 2016-17, owing to continued tightness in available containers and freight.”

BOXED Nov Dec Jan Total
China 4165 27020 22234 53419
Egypt 18003 35692 1015 54710
Fiji 2400 1214 290 3904
French Polynesia 199 179 0 379
India 0 50 0 50
Indonesia 1517 2071 87516 91104
Japan 0 1300 780 2080
Malaysia 11962 15307 27122 54390
Myanmar 1008 7491 24316 32815
New Caledonia 3193 425 3095 6713
New Zealand 8108 5478 3071 16657
Papua New Guinea 0 0 404 404
Philippines 2451 2693 4514 9659
Saudi Arabia 0 252 638 890
Singapore 1025 1514 573 3111
Solomon Islands 1002 999 980 2981
South Korea 0 0 502 502
Sri Lanka 988 0 0 988
Taiwan 2134 11452 18190 31775
Tanzania 0 203 303 506
Thailand 11824 19934 24378 56136
UK 0 375 1449 1825
Vietnam 9431 46040 47771 103243
DURUM
Egypt 250 750 0 1000
Malaysia 2 2 0 4
Taiwan 5 0 0 5
TONNES 79668 180440 269140 529248

Table 1: Australian containerised wheat exports for November and December 2020 and January 2021. Source: ABS

BULK Nov Dec Jan Total
Bahrain 26080 0 0 26080
Bangladesh 0 0 60500 60500
China 0 779511 144520 924030
Egypt 0 42850 71286 114136
Fiji 0 15009 30001 45009
Indonesia 115320 254827 460149 830296
Japan 51594 61933 93720 207246
Kenya 0 0 44000 44000
Kuwait 0 44691 45274 89965
Malaysia 429 122383 92362 215174
Myanmar 0 25362 69934 95295
New Zealand 43480 28760 50286 122526
Oman 0 45370 0 45370
Papua New Guinea 26070 18500 30470 75040
Philippines 59915 202626 332344 594884
Saudi Arabia 0 66000 66000 132000
Singapore 0 22000 0 22000
South Korea 0 89760 88000 177760
Sri Lanka 1001 36284 0 37285
Thailand 0 1502 107514 109016
UAE 45106 0 66779 111885
Vietnam 56270 273489 201200 530959
Yemen 0 172900 113524 286424
DURUM
Fiji 0 0 490 490
Philippines 0 399 400 799
Thailand 0 147 0 147
TONNES 425263 2304300 2168750 4898313

Table 2: Australian bulk wheat exports for November and December 2020 and January 2021. Source: ABS

 

 

 

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