The Rumour Mill

14/12/10 -- Chinese crushers are deferring scheduled soybean imports as rising raw material costs coupled with the government-imposed cap on domestic vegoil prices turns crush margins negative.

To possibly back that up, there were no bids at all in today's weekly government soybean auction where 296,000 MT of soybeans were on offer. In addition, less than 8% of the corn on offer at auction got sold today.

Reports of new, but as yet unspecified, Chinese government-backed measures to combat speculation in the commodity markets are also just starting to filter through.

Chinese demand, or the lack of it, holds the key to the market.