DJ China Soybean Futures Settle Up; USDA Report In Focus

BEIJING (Dow Jones)--China's soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Wednesday, with traders being cautious ahead of a possible favorable U.S. Department of Agriculture  report to be released tonight. The benchmark September 2010 soybean contract settled CNY19, or 0.5%, higher at CNY3,902 a metric ton.

The contract opened higher along with the gains on Chicago Board of  Trade overnight but failed to get more upward momentum despite market  rumors of China curbing soyoil imports through tighter quality  standard controls.

The market was abuzz with talk that the government  may require all imported soyoil to have a maximum solvent residue level of 100 parts per million, and that cargoes exceeding the level wouldn't be allowed to be unloaded at the ports. But as the market has digested the rumor yesterday, and no formal government document  was released, the focus remained on USDA's planting area report, Galaxy Futures said in its note.

Trading volume of all soybean contracts rose to 336,362 lots from 216,394 lots Tuesday. Open interest rose 6,318 lots to 342,256 lots Wednesday. Corn futures settled lower, while soyoil, soymeal and palm oil futures all  settled higher.

Following are Wednesday's settlement prices in yuan a ton for benchmark contracts and volume for all contracts in lots (one lot is equivalent to 10 tons):

Product  Contract  Settlement Price  Change     Volume 
Soybean  Sep 2010      3,902        Up   19    336,362 
Corn     Sep 2010      1,931      Down    4    106,824 
Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,851        Up    2    802,224 
Palm Oil Sep 2010      6,880        Up   12    368,058 
Soyoil   Sep 2010      7,604        Up   44  1,035,316 
 
 
  -Zheng Xiaolu contributed to this article; Dow Jones Newswires; 8610
8400-7715; tracy.zheng@dowjones.com