Export

Australia ships 803,572t wheat in Feb, down from 1.3Mt in Jan

Liz Wells, April 16, 2020

Interflour’s plant at Cai Mep is a major user of wheat in Vietnam which was Australia’s biggest bulk wheat market in February. Photo: Interflour

AUSTRALIA exported 803,572 tonnes of wheat in February, down 38 per cent from 1.3 million tonnes (Mt) shipped in January, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In bulk markets, Vietnam followed by China and South Korea were the biggest-volume customers, while on containers, Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand were the biggest customers.

Western Australia and South Australia exported most of the wheat shipped in February.

“ABS February exports came were still a decent volume, considering our reduced exportable surplus this season,” Market Check head of strategy Nick Crundall said.

“WA and SA continue to impress…with Victoria still lagging.

“We should see this transition as WA and SA are fast running out of stock, and Victoria is the last remaining option, and also now the cheapest state in the country.

“In terms of destinations, Vietnam stepped up for 13o,000t, while 114,000 was sent across to China as part of their big buying spree of Aussie wheat this year.

“The Philippines barely bought a cracker in Feb after a strong Jan buying program.”

In its April Grain: World Markets and Trade Report, USDA has lifted its estimate for Australia’s 2019/20 wheat exports to 8.5Mt from 8.2Mt seen last month due to the fast pace of shipments.

On the flipside, USDA has cut its estimate for US wheat exports by 400,000t to 27.1Mt due to slowing shipments.

Dec Jan Feb Tonnes
Bahrain 25636 0 0 25636
Bangladesh 0 31411 101 31511
China 68645 102149 113297 284091
Egypt 22000 0 44000 66000
Fiji 0 30002 0 30002
Indonesia 133717 149493 86464 369674
Japan 72084 66713 80227 219023
Kenya 0 46550 0 46550
Kuwait 44000 42130 33530 119660
Malaysia 53653 43000 19050 115703
Myanmar 0 0 22442 22442
New Zealand 62180 0 32243 94423
Oman 11000 16500 16500 44000
Papua New Guinea 0 44062 26070 70132
Philippines 84287 314695 1040 400022
Singapore 0 0 21200 21200
South Korea 66220 84700 88000 238920
Sri Lanka 2752 3002 2413 8166
Thailand 81808 72500 0 154308
United Arab Emirates 11000 247 9608 20855
Vietnam 47049 83986 125466 256501
Yemen 60500 51114 5758 117372
TOTAL 846530 1182253 727408 2756191

Table 1: Australia’s bulk wheat exports for December 2018 and January and February 2020. Source: ABS

BOXED Dec Jan Feb Tonnes
China 12147 2375 1354 15876
Egypt 377 42212 5670 48259
Fiji 3100 2392 1998 7490
French Polynesia 125 0 123 248
Indonesia 1019 1001 2054 4074
Japan 0 1190 670 1861
Lebanon 0 992 1000 1992
Malaysia 4019 11129 11997 27145
Myanmar 7337 12035 14370 33742
New Caledonia 1195 1702 773 3669
New Zealand 2399 5500 4930 12830
Papua New Guinea 48 2681 0 2729
Philippines 6246 3225 2330 11801
Saudi Arabia 0 0 1085 1085
Singapore 1737 1020 1526 4282
Solomon Islands 1253 0 1003 2257
South Korea 0 1002 519 1521
Sri Lanka 1026 0 3565 4591
Taiwan 3771 4054 5439 13264
Thailand 11583 9486 10963 32031
United Kingdom 300 335 197 833
Vietnam 12740 10834 4596 28170
TOTAL 70420 113164 76164 259748

Table 2: Australia’s containerised wheat exports for December 2018 and January and February 2020. Source: ABS

 

 

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