China & Saudi Arabia: China’s barley imports beating forecasts, Saudi Arabia may need more than 9 mln tonnes this year
The new Saudi Arab grain purchaser SAGO held 4 tenders so far, their regular purchase volume is 1.5 mln tonnes per two months, which should end up with 9 mln tonnes for the year, H. M. Gauger GmbH analysts estimate.
Some other industry analysts doubt that such a quantity is sufficient for the domestic demand in Saudi Arabia, however.
China imported 3.27 mln tonnes of barley in Jan/April of this year, of which 1.1 mln tonnes in April. Main suppliers were Australia of 2.8 mln tonnes and Canada of 450,000 tonnes (Jan/April).
Analysts had forecast imports of only 4.2 to 4.5 mln tonnes for the whole year, which looks far too low by now.
The world barley S/D looks very tight, but altogether grain stocks are ample and will prevent run-away barley markets, H. M. Gauger analysts said.
Wstecz
E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .
