Saudi demand leaves 2-mo of Australian barley exports left: analyst

Australia will have used up its exportable barley surplus in the next two months after Saudi Arabian demand filled a void...

Australia will have used up its exportable barley surplus in the next two months after Saudi Arabian demand filled a void left by a punitive Chinese import tariff last year, delegates were told at the Black Sea Grain conference in Kyiv on Friday.

“We have had such big demand for barley that 90% gone of what we have to export is gone, so I would say that within two months we would not anymore for export… Saudi Arabia jumped in and replaced China completely,” Ole Houe, CEO of IKON Commodities said during the event.

Exports during the first four months of Australia’s marketing year from December to March were a solid 3.8 million mt.

Saudi Arabia took almost half that volume with 2.1 million mt, almost double the five-year average for what it would typically import over the same window.

China was previously Australia’s biggest barley export market, but a diplomatic spat spilled over into the market and saw Beijing impose a punitive import duty on the grain that effectively prohibited it from the market.

Australian state forecaster Abares estimated barley output in the 2020/21 marketing year at 12 million mt with exports at 9 million mt.

What to read next
Despite the current headwinds, strategic partnerships and continued investment in the right areas, coupled with the underlying strong long-term demand fundamentals, will pave the way for success for lithium producers, according to the participants of the executive panel during the Fastmarkets Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials Conference, which took place from June 23-26 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The US and Europe must adopt long-term, consistent policies and should learn lessons from China, according to lithium industry experts speaking at Fastmarkets’ Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials Conference in Las Vegas, US, over June 22-25.
This consultation was done as an adhoc methodology review process, aiming to better reflect the physical market under indexation, considering its reduced liquidity linked to the combination of seasonal demand patterns and the implementation of cross-border import tariffs between the US and China. No feedback was received during the consultation period and therefore Fastmarkets will […]
Fastmarkets has corrected the rationale for its MB-CO-0021 cobalt hydroxide payable indicator, min 30% Co, cif China, % payable of Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end), which was published incorrectly on Wednesday July 2 due to a reporter error.
Downward pressure on global steel prices, caused by continued high levels of Chinese steel production at prices below costs, creates incentives than can lead to a rebalancing of global supply and demand and a boost to profitability, World Steel Dynamics chief executive officer Philipp Englin said at the Global Steel Dynamics Forum in New York on Wednesday June 18.
The global steel industry’s move to decarbonize and China’s penchant for lower-grade ores in recent years have uncovered challenges for high-grade iron ore to live out its value in both the blast furnace-based steelmaking route and the direct-reduction iron process, delegates told Fastmarkets during the Singapore International Ferrous Week (SIFW), which takes place from May 26-30.