EU wheat hits 2-month low as Egypt tender shows Black Sea competition
Updates with close and new low
HAMBURG/PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) -Euronext wheat fell on Monday to a two-month low as plentiful offers of Black Sea supply in an ongoing Egyptian tender underscored export competition despite Russian steps to implement minimum prices for overseas sales.
Benchmark December milling wheat BL2Z4 on Paris-based Euronext settled 1.5% down at 213.75 euros ($232.82) a metric ton to drop for a fourth straight session.
The contract in late trade touchedits lowest since Sept. 3 at 213.25 euros.
A sharp rise in the euro EUR= against the dollar also weighed on Euronext by making Western European grain more expensive for export. A corresponding drop in the dollar helped push Chicago wheat Wv1 higher. GRA/
"I think it's above all the volumes offered (to Egypt) that are weighing on the market," a futures dealer said.
While offers of Russian wheat were aligned at a single price, suggesting the application of an export floor price, there were offers of other Black Sea origins that were also cheaper than French wheat in the tender.
"Egypt's purchase tender today was another illustration of the dominance of Black Sea wheat in export markets," one German trader said.
"Offers for French wheat were more expensive than Russian despite the influence of the Russian unofficial minimum export price while Ukrainian and Romanian wheat was also cheap."
Although France has a reduced surplus after a poor harvest this year, there has been concern about a lack of export sales, mainly after Algeria reportedly overlooked French wheat last week for a second successive tender amid diplomatic tensions with France.
"Argentine and Australian new crop wheat will increasingly enter the world market as southern hemisphere crops progress in coming weeks so the west EU is likely to face even harder export competition," another German trader added.
An improved weather outlook for northern hemisphere wheat, including rain forecast in parched Russian and U.S. grain belts and a drier spell in soggy French crop zones, was also curbing prices.
($1 = 0.9181 euros)
Reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by Alan Barona and Tasim Zahid
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