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CBOT grains fall on lower volumes, lack of fresh bullish

news

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Soybeans see pressure from profit-taking in soymeal,

soyoil

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Traders question future grain import needs from China

(Rewrites throughout, updates headline, adds bullets, adds

quotes, updates prices, changes byline, changes dateline from

PARIS/CANBERRA)

By Renee Hickman

CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn

futures eased on Friday on technical selling and disappointment

in the size of weekly export sales, analysts said.

Soybeans faced pressure from profit-taking in soymeal and

soyoil futures, and wheat futures turned lower on sluggish

exports, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting.

"Global trade on wheat is stagnant right now, so there's no

urgency in the market to extend coverage," Setzer said.

The most-active CBOT corn contract was down 3-1/4

cents at $4.40-1/4 a bushel by 12:19 p.m. CST (1819 GMT).

The contract had reached its highest since late June at

$4.51-1/4 on Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture

cut its estimate for U.S. end-of-season corn stockpiles to 1.738

billion bushels from 1.938 billion.

But USDA weekly export data on Thursday showed net U.S. corn

sales at 946,900 metric tons, below analyst forecasts for at

least 1.1 million tons.

Most-active soybeans were down 9 cents to $9.86-3/4 a

bushel and CBOT wheat slipped 6-3/4 cents to $5.51-3/4 a

bushel.

Growing uncertainty over China's import needs going into

next year also weighed on grain and oilseed markets, Setzer

said.

China's total grain production reached a record of more than

700 million tons in 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics said

on Friday, as Beijing moved to boost output as part of a broader

effort to be less reliant on food imports.

Uncertainty over the flow of future U.S. exports to Canada,

another key market, also pressured futures, Setzer said.

Trade tensions between the countries are heating up, after

Canada vowed it would retaliate against U.S. tariffs and Ontario

Premier Doug Ford said energy exports to the U.S. could be

halted.