Flour Production up 5.1%, Wheat Price up 6.51% in September

By CnAgri2012-10-26 10:47:27 Print

Flour production by medium and large mills registered 10.897 million MT in September, 5.1% more than the month before and 1.28% more than the same period of last year. Flour production totaled 89.957 million MT in January ~ September, an increase of 9.24% on the year-on-year basis. The promulgated figures showed a flour production increase of 8.7% in September and 15.8% in January ~ September, both on the year-on-year basis.

Wheat consumption by medium and large mills was estimated to be 14.726 million MT in September and 122 million MT in January ~ September. Deducting repetitive statistics, flour production and wheat consumption were about 6.777 million MT and 9.159 million MT respectively in September. Flour production and wheat consumption were estimated to be 55.948 million MT and 75.606 million MT respectively in January ~ September.

Small mills ran at 26.6% of their capacity and medium and large mills at 48.3% in September.

Wheat consumption for various uses was about 10.371 million MT in September. Wheat inventory was 120 million MT at the end of September, suggesting a stock index of 11.5, up 0.3 on the year-on-year basis.

Wheat procurement totaled 57.625 million MT by September, parallel to the same period of last year. Of the total, 38.848 million MT were procured by state-run companies, an increase of 2.959 million MT on the year-on-year basis. Of the state-run companies’ procurement, 23.254 million MT were procured at the protective price.

Wheat stock at the end of September consisted of 28.16 million MT state reserve, 34.22 million MT short-term state reserve, 16.49 million MT flourmills’ stock and 31.56 million MT on-farm stock. Farmers sold 73.71% of their wheat by September, parallel to the same period of last year.

In the 2012/2013 crop year, planted wheat acreage and wheat production are 24.4 million hectares and 117.5 million MT respectively, parallel to the previous year. Due to increased wheat consumption by feed mills, year-end wheat inventory and safety index are estimated to drop to 42.942 million MT and 34.2% respectively.

Wheat price was RMB2,181/MT in September and RMB2,142/MT in May ~ September, up 6.51% and 3.76% respectively on the year-on-year basis. Due to inflation, wheat price is estimated to move up to RMB2,197/MT in 2012/2013, up 5% on the year-on-year basis.

From “China Grains Market Weekly Report”