Premjee news unlikely to affect soymeal trade

Premjee news unlikely to affect soymeal trade

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Leading soymeal traders for the Southeast Asian region said on Tuesday an interim judicial management faced by G. Premjee Ltd.'s Singapore unit would not affect Asia trade volumes but could make buyers extra cautious.

The judicial management faced by G. Premjee Trading Pte. Ltd., a unit of one of Asia's oldest commodity trading firms, has come at a time when the Indian soymeal marketing season is in full swing and the U.S. soybean crop is being harvested.

The Singapore firm has suspended all its trading in grains and meals following the judicial management, under which it is to remain for 30 days starting from Oct. 11.

"I don't think these kind of developments can affect overall trading volumes in the region," a leading Singapore grains trader told Reuters.

Another trader said: "The only thing which can happen is that it might make some grain buyers cautious while signing deals with anybody or any trading firm."

Traders said most Asian end-users of imported soymeal were currently procuring their requirements hand-to-mouth, and therefore the issue should not be a major cause for concern.

"If you see the whole Southeast Asian soymeal market, not a single end-user had signed up contracts for very huge volumes with any trading firm. So even if there is a problem like this, it is not going to impact the market in a big way."

Some Singapore traders said on Monday that G. Premjee's position was not much larger than 25,000 tons, including deals with South Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Premjee had already slashed its Indian soymeal business to around 150,000 tons during the last campaign, down from around 400,000 tons the previous year, traders said.

"Trading in Indian soymeal is going on as usual in the region," said one Singapore grains trader. "There has been a slight slowdown in trading in the past few days but it is for different reasons."

Southeast Asian traders said they were hoping Indian soymeal prices, which had firmed up a bit recently, would fall when they can step up their buying. Indian soymeal is currently quoted at about $203/204 a ton C&F Southeast Asia for Nov/Dec shipment.

Out of the new Indian soymeal business, South Korea had bought more than 100,000 tons, Indonesia seven cargoes of about 12,500 tons each, Philippines about 40,000 to 50,000 tons, Thailand about 12,500 tons and Vietnam about 24,000 tons.