Export

Australia’s June wheat exports at 1.35Mt down 6pc from May

Liz Wells August 8, 2018

AUSTRALIA’S wheat exports in June at 1.35 million tonnes (Mt) were down 6 per cent from the May figure of 1.44Mt, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Australia’s monthly current-crop wheat exports as compared with the five-year average. Source: Market Check

 

The drop in total bulk and containerised shipments of Australian wheat has not shown signs of limitation caused by a string of cargoes making their way from the export-focused states of Western Australia and South Australia to drought-hit eastern states.

Market Check head of strategy, Nick Crundall, said the June total was only slightly down on the five-year average for June of 1.49Mt.

“It illustrates that exports are running fairly high relative to our production this season,” Mr Crundall said.

Indonesia on 380,482t bought the most grain it has in 10 months, which Mr Crundall said reflected the appeal of Australian wheat in the face of a rally in Black Sea values, and continued  Indonesia’s run as Australia’s largest customer.

Holding its number two spot in June was The Philippines, which took 264,574t in of Australian wheat, down from 314,600t in May.

“Unsurprisingly, most of the heavy lifting was done in Western Australia, as the east coast is working to cut off exports and preserve remaining inventories to satisfy domestic demand.

“In terms of new-crop exports, what we’ll have available to the export channel is very much dependent on how spring weather plays out.

“There is little doubt though that our exports will be the lowest in more than 10 years, and much lower than the current USDA estimate.”

This estimate is widely expected to be cut in USDA’s August World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report due out on Friday.

The July WASDE report reduced the forecast for Australia’s new-crop exports to 16Mt from a 22Mt production, down from the June estimate of 17Mt of exports from 24Mt produced.

BULK April May June Tonnes
Bahrain 0 0 23917 23917
Bangladesh 30070 0 30070
China 66000 69300 0 135300
Egypt 0 0 29175 29175
Fiji 26662 0 0 26662
Indonesia 259505 278615 370451 908571
Iraq 102750 0 51948 154698
Japan 64199 64207 63023 191429
Korea 94035 90200 102223 286458
Kuwait 43420 42600 42568 128588
Malaysia 20667 95317 16510 132494
New Zealand 54102 32005 48299 134406
Nigeria 104400 49140 0 153540
Oman 0 0 16435 16435
Papua New Guinea 39356 0 17600 56956
Philippines 156389 306483 259540 722412
Singapore 13455 15400 0 28855
Sri Lanka 9509 0 0 9509
Thailand 66000 26776 25500 118276
UAE 16065 0 127 16192
Vietnam 27499 108811 72230 208540
Yemen 85250 50767 82587 218604
TOTAL 1249263 1259691 1222133 3731087

Figure 2: ABS data for Australia’s monthly bulk wheat shipments for April, May and June 2018.

CONTAINERS April May June Tonnes
China 7710 12277 18000 37987
Egypt 280 0 0 280
Fiji 4194 4010 1147 9351
French Polynesia 198 0 0 198
Hong Kong 48 0 24 72
Indonesia 12520 2623 10031 25174
Japan 0 1617 60 1677
Jordan 0 1033 0 1033
Korea 0 997 501 1498
Malaysia 17223 28543 20809 66575
Myanmar 20043 28784 25299 74126
New Caledonia 698 2027 1145 3870
New Zealand 344 6102 6124 12570
Papua New Guinea 325 250 76 651
Philippines 4568 8117 5034 17719
Saudi Arabia 1250 0 500 1750
Singapore 1495 1504 0 2999
Solomon Islands 1281 1706 1384 4371
Sri Lanka 2982 6006 770 9758
Taiwan 21401 21258 16169 58828
Thailand 11603 14289 4082 29974
UAE 0 26 0 26
UK 0 198 255 453
Vietnam 27436 40698 12523 80657
TOTAL 135599 182065 123933 441597

Figure 3: ABS data for Australia’s containerised wheat shipments for April, May and June 2018.

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