Analys
SEB – Jordbruksprodukter, vecka 5 2012
Vinnare sedan föregående vecka har de olika veteterminerna varit med uppgångar på 4 till 5%. Eurex-terminerna på tyska grisar ligger 10% högre den här veckan, men det beror bara på att vi nu tittar på ett längre terminskontrakt än förra veckan. Det är dock en liten prisuppgång på gris i Europa och också en liten i USA.
I fokus för vetemarknaden har oron för ryskt exportstopp varit. Marknaden har också oroat sig för det kalla och torra vädret i Ryssland.
Oron för torkan i Argentina har lagt sig och när nederbörden kommit tillbaka anses majsskörden kunna stabilisera sig på 18 – 22 mt (USDA:s senaste WASDE låg på 23 mt). WASDE släpps nästa vecka.
Vete
Oro över det kalla vädret i Ryssland och Östeuropa samt ett eventuellt införande av ett ryskt exportförbud har fortsatt att driva vete priset uppåt.
Den ryska regeringen diskuterar frågan om att eventuellt införande av skatter / tullar på spannmålsexporten för att bromsa den höga exporttakten.
Jordbruksministeriet i Ryssland övervakar dock kontinuerligt volymen som exporteras, och som fortfarande är stabil, och kommer att basera sitt beslut på den volym som har exporterats per februari månad. I mitten av februari kommer regeringen att kunna estimera volymen för hela månaden och då ta ställning i frågan.
Samtidigt betonar ministeriet att detta inte kan komma som någon överraskning för marknaden och att informationen som har cirkulerat om att skatter / tullar ska införas per april 2012 är ”helt grundlösa”. Som vi har skrivit om tidigare var Putin ute redan i oktober och pratade om att spannmålsexporten för 2011/12 skulle komma att uppgå till 24-25 miljoner ton och därefter skulle eventuella restriktioner införas för att inte ”landet skulle bli utan bröd och för att upprätthålla lager”.
Rosstat’s statistik visar att produktionen av spannmål och baljväxter i Ryssland under 2011 uppgår till 93.9 miljoner ton, inklusive 56,2 miljoner ton vete, 16,9 miljoner korn, 6,7 miljoner ton majs och 14,1 milj i andra sädesslag och baljväxter. Detta är en uppgång med 54 procent sedan 2010 då landet led av svår torka. Veteproduktionen är upp 36% och produktionen av korn har mer än fördubblats. Det är dock bara 3 procent högre än det 5-åriga genomsnittet. Majsproduktionen matchar rekordåret 2008. Den enorma ökningen är nästan helt och hållet avkastningsrelaterad, då odlad areal endast ökade med 1 procent från 2010 till 43,6 miljoner hektar.
Som ett resultat av den stora spannmålsskörden ökade också exporten av spannmål kraftigt under första halvan av året (juli – december 2011) där Ryssland exporterade över 18 miljoner ton spannmål och baljväxter, inklusive 14,8 miljoner ton vete och det var tre av Rysslands södra regioner (Rostov oblast, Krasnodar och Stavropol krays) som stod för 85 procent av och den totala exporten. Den totala exporten för 2011/12 väntas nå 24 miljoner ton. Trots de höga exportsiffrorna under det första halvåret kommer det att bli en betydlig nedgång i exporttakten under den andra halvan av 2011/12 (januari – juni). Dels är exportpotentialen från de tre södra regionerna i stort sett klar och kommer därmed att vara nästan obefintlig de sista månaderna, dels är det problem med logistiken under vinterhalvåret. Den inhemska efterfrågan på spannmål till foderindustrin är också fortsatt stark och lagren av spannmål för export har minskat.
Vädret har också ställt till det i Ukraina då svårt frost i de flesta ukrainska regioner dramatiskt har bromsat takten på landets spannmålsexport.
En temperatur på runt minus 20 grader gör det i stort sett omöjligt att lasta spannmål på järnvägsvagnar inne i landet medan stark vind och snö hindrar lastningen i hamnarna och flera stora fartyg ligger bara och väntar.
Nedan ser vi kursdiagrammet för marskontraktet på Matif, där priset rusat över motståndet på 217, men faktiskt gick ner på onsdagskvällen och stängde under. Det är en negativ signal.
Nedan ser vi novemberkontraktet, som inte bröt ur sin konsolidering i tisdags morse, men som ännu inte nått motståndsnivån på 205 euro.
Matif har gått ännu mer i backwardation och contangot har minskat för Chicagovetet. Det talas om att den europeiske bonden inte säljer något, utan sitter och håller på sin spannmål. Vi tänker, det kan bli trångt i dörren framåt våren, när alla vill sälja samtidigt.
Vi tror att vi såg en ”key reversal day” igår i och med att marskontraktet tvärvände under dagen och stängde på den lägsta nivån. Ett sådant omslag från uppgång till tvär nedgång brukar vara värt att ta fasta på.
Maltkorn
Maltkornet har handlats upp eftersom vetet handlats upp. Det finns inget specifikt att säga om maltkornet.
Potatis
Priset på industripotatis ligger kvar på samma nivå som förra veckan för skörd 2012.
Nedan ser vi terminskurvan framåt i tiden. Årets låga priser väntas alltså inte bestå.
Majs
Väntad skörd i Argentina håller på att stabilisera sig på 18-21 mt, som är lägre än vad USDA förutspådde i januari-WASDE. Nedan ser vi att priset på decemberkontraktet ligger precis under en motståndslinje. Brott upp genom den är ett tecken på styrka och att vi i så fall skulle kunna få se en fortsatt prisuppgång.
Nedan ser vi terminskurvorna för vete (contango) och majs (backwardation).
Vete är 60 punds bushel, men här har jag räknat om priserna så att de båda är uttryckta som majsens 56 punds bushels.
Sojabönor
Sodrugestvo och Grain Ukraine förutspår en rekordskörd av sojabönor i Ukraina under 2012/13. Lönsamheten är 100-150% på grödan. Bara solrosor och majs har högre lönsamhet. Det finns gott om utsäde. Förfruktsfördelarna har ett högt värde för korn och vete. Tekniskt ser finns ingen signal ännu.
Raps
Novemberkontraktet har brutit motståndet, men ännu inte gått över pristoppen i juli. Så länge det inte sker, har vi inte någon stor trendvändning.
Mjölk
Nedan ser vi priset på marskontraktet på flytande mjölk (kontakt avräknat mot USDA:s prisindex). Vi tror fortfarande att priset kan gå ner till 16 och att prisnedgången är ”halvvägs”.
Gris
Priset på lean hogs har brutit uppåt, och befinner sig därmed fortfarande i det breda intervall som priset pendlat inom det senaste året.
Priset i Europa har betett sig på samma sätt. Nedan ser vi det vid var tid kortaste terminskontraktet (närmast spot). Det ser ut som om priset stigit kraftigt, men det beror bara på att det kontrakt som var kortast tidigare förfallit och att det kortaste nu, ligger på en högre nivå pga säsongseffekten.
Valutor
EURSEK – försöker korrigera nedgången. Vi har en neutral rekommendation på både en veckas sikt och tre månaders.
EURUSD – i rekyl fortfarande Rekommendation: Neutral på en veckas sikt. Negativ på tre månader.
USDSEK – söker efter en botten i korrektionen nedåt Vi har en neutral rekommendation på en veckas sikt, men är positive på tre månader.
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Disclaimer
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Analys
Very relaxed at USD 75/b. Risk barometer will likely fluctuate to higher levels with Brent into the 80ies or higher coming 2-3 weeks

Brent rallied 12% last week. But closed the week below USD 75/b and it is still there. Very relaxed. Brent crude rallied 12% to USD 78.5/b in the early hours of Friday as Israel attacked Iran. The highest level since 27 January this year. The level didn’t hold and Brent closed the day at USD 74.23/b which was up 5.7% on the day and 11.7% on the week. On Friday it was still very unclear how extensive and lasting this war between Iran and Israel would be. Energy assets in Iran had still not been touched and Iran had not targeted other Middle East countries’ energy assets or US military bases in the region. As such, the Brent crude closed the week comfortably at around USD 75/b. Which one cannot argue is very much of a stressed price level.

Israel is targeting Iran’s domestic energy infrastructure. Not its energy export facilities. For now. Over the weekend Israel has widened its targets to include fuel depots in Tehran, refineries supplying Iran domestically and also a processing plant at Iran’s South Pars gas field – the world’s largest. So far it appears that Israel has refrained from hurting Iranian oil and gas export facilities. Maybe adhering to Trump’s whish of low oil prices. Trump has been begging for a lower oil price. Would be very frustrating for him if Israel started to blow up Iran’s export facilities. Focus instead looks to be on Iran’s domestic energy supply and infrastructure. To weaken and disable the operations of Iran as a country while leaving Iran’s energy export facilities intact for now at least. That is probably why Brent crude this morning is only trading at USD 74.9/b with little change from Friday. An incredible relaxed price level given what is going on in the Middle East.
Israel seems to try to do to Iran what Israel recently did to Lebanon. Israel now seems to have close to total control of the Iranian air space. So called ”Air Supremacy” something which is rarely achieved according to Phillips P. O’Brian (see comment on this below with link). This is giving Israel close to total freedom in the airspace over Iran. Israel now seems to try to do to Iran what Israel recently did to Lebanon. Take out military and political commanders. Take out the air defenses. Then grind the rest of its defensive capacities to the ground over some time.
Continuous pressure. No rest. No letting up for several weeks seems likely. The current situation is a very rare opportunity for Israel to attack Iran with full force. Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iranian strongholds in Syria, are all severely weakened or disabled. And now also Air Supremacy of the airspace over Iran. It is natural to assume that Israel will not let this opportunity pass. As such it will likely continue with full force over several weeks to come, at least, with Israel grinding down the rest of Iran’s defensive capabilities and domestic energy supply facilities as far as possible. Continuous pressure. No rest. No letting up.
What to do with Fordow? Will Iran jump to weapons grade uranium? The big question is of course Iran’s nuclear facilities. Natanz with 16,000 enrichment centrifuges was destroyed by Israel on Friday. It was only maximum 20 meters below ground. It was where Iran had mass enrichment to low enrichment levels. Fordow is a completely different thing. It is 500 meters deep under a mountain. It is where enrichment towards weapons grade Uranium takes place. Iran today has 408 kg of highly enriched uranium (IAEA) which can be enriched to weapons grade. It is assumed that Iran will only need 2-3 days to make 25 kg of weapons grade uranium and three weeks to make enough for 9 nuclear warheads. How Israel decides to deal with Fordow is the big question. Ground forces? Help from the US?
Also, if Iran is pushed to the end of the line, then it might decide to enrich to weapons grade which again will lead to a cascade of consequences.
Brent is extremely relaxed at USD 75/b. But at times over coming 2-3 weeks the risk barometer will likely move higher with Brent moving into the 80ies or higher. The oil price today is extremely relaxed with the whole thing. Lots of OPEC+ spare capacity allows loss of Iranian oil exports. Israeli focus on Iran’s domestic energy systems rather than on its exports facilities is also soothing the market. But at times over the coming two, three weeks the risk barometer will likely move significantly higher as it might seem like the situation in the Middle East may move out of control. So Brent into the 80ies or higher seems highly likely in the weeks to come. At times at least. And if it all falls apart, the oil price will of course move well above 100.
Phillips P. OBrien on ”Air Supremacy” (embedded link): Air power historian Philip Meilinger: ”Air Superiority is defined as being able to conduct air operations “without prohibitive interference by the opposing force.” Air Supremacy goes further, wherein the opposing air force is incapable of effective interference.”
Thus, air supremacy is an entirely different beast from air superiority. It occurs when one power basically controls the skies over an enemy, and can operate practically anywhere/time that it wants without much fear of enemy interference in its operations.
The US had Air Supremacy over Germany in the second World War, but only at the very end when it was close to over. It only had Air Superiority in the Vietnam war, but not Supremacy. During Desert Storm in 1990-1991 however it did have Supremacy with devastating consequences for the enemy. (last paragraph is a condensed summary).
Analys
Brent needs to fall to USD 58/b to make cheating unprofitable for Kazakhstan

Brent jumping 2.4% as OPEC+ lifts quota by ”only” 411 kb/d in July. Brent crude is jumping 2.4% this morning to USD 64.3/b following the decision by OPEC+ this weekend to lift the production cap of ”Voluntary 8” (V8) by 411 kb/d in July and not more as was feared going into the weekend. The motivation for the triple hikes of 411 kb/d in May and June and now also in July has been a bit unclear: 1) Cheating by Kazakhstan and Iraq, 2) Muhammed bin Salman listening to Donald Trump for more oil and a lower oil price in exchange for weapons deals and political alignments in the Middle East and lastly 3) Higher supply to meet higher demand for oil this summer. The argument that they are taking back market share was already decided in the original plan of unwinding the 2.2 mb/d of V8 voluntary cuts by the end of 2026. The surprise has been the unexpected speed with monthly increases of 3×137 kb/d/mth rather than just 137 kb/d monthly steps.

No surplus yet. Time-spreads tightened last week. US inventories fell the week before last. In support of point 3) above it is worth noting that the Brent crude oil front-end backwardation strengthened last week (sign of tightness) even when the market was fearing for a production hike of more than 411 kb/d for July. US crude, diesel and gasoline stocks fell the week before last with overall commercial stocks falling 0.7 mb versus a normal rise this time of year of 3-6 mb per week. So surplus is not here yet. And more oil from OPEC+ is welcomed by consumers.
Saudi Arabia calling the shots with Russia objecting. This weekend however we got to know a little bit more. Saudi Arabia was predominantly calling the shots and decided the outcome. Russia together with Oman and Algeria opposed the hike in July and instead argued for zero increase. What this alures to in our view is that it is probably the cheating by Kazakhstan and Iraq which is at the heart of the unexpectedly fast monthly increases. Saudi Arabia cannot allow it to be profitable for the individual members to cheat. And especially so when Kazakhstan explicitly and blatantly rejects its quota obligation stating that they have no plans of cutting production from 1.77 mb/d to 1.47 mb/d. And when not even Russia is able to whip Kazakhstan into line, then the whole V8 project is kind of over.
Is it simply a decision by Saudi Arabia to unwind faster altogether? What is still puzzling though is that despite the three monthly hikes of 411 kb/d, the revival of the 2.2 mb/d of voluntary production cuts is still kind of orderly. Saudi Arabia could have just abandoned the whole V8 project from one month to the next. But we have seen no explicit communication that the plan of reviving the cuts by the end of 2026 has been abandoned. It may be that it is simply a general change of mind by Saudi Arabia where the new view is that production cuts altogether needs to be unwinded sooner rather than later. For Saudi Arabia it means getting its production back up to 10 mb/d. That implies first unwinding the 2.2 mb/d and then the next 1.6 mb/d.
Brent would likely crash with a fast unwind of 2.2 + 1.6 mb/d by year end. If Saudi Arabia has decided on a fast unwind it would meant that the group would lift the quotas by 411 kb/d both in August and in September. It would then basically be done with the 2.2 mb/d revival. Thereafter directly embark on reviving the remaining 1.6 mb/d. That would imply a very sad end of the year for the oil price. It would then probably crash in Q4-25. But it is far from clear that this is where we are heading.
Brent needs to fall to USD 58/b or lower to make it unprofitable for Kazakhstan to cheat. To make it unprofitable for Kazakhstan to cheat. Kazakhstan is currently producing 1.77 mb/d versus its quota which before the hikes stood at 1.47 kb/d. If they had cut back to the quota level they might have gotten USD 70/b or USD 103/day. Instead they choose to keep production at 1.77 mb/d. For Saudi Arabia to make it a loss-making business for Kazakhstan to cheat the oil price needs to fall below USD 58/b ( 103/1.77).
Analys
All eyes on OPEC V8 and their July quota decision on Saturday

Tariffs or no tariffs played ping pong with Brent crude yesterday. Brent crude traded to a joyous high of USD 66.13/b yesterday as a US court rejected Trump’s tariffs. Though that ruling was later overturned again with Brent closing down 1.2% on the day to USD 64.15/b.

US commercial oil inventories fell 0.7 mb last week versus a seasonal normal rise of 3-6 mb. US commercial crude and product stocks fell 0.7 mb last week which is fairly bullish since the seasonal normal is for a rise of 4.3 mb. US crude stocks fell 2.8 mb, Distillates fell 0.7 mb and Gasoline stocks fell 2.4 mb.
All eyes are now on OPEC V8 (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Algeria, Russia, Oman, Kazakhstan) which will make a decision tomorrow on what to do with production for July. Overall they are in a process of placing 2.2 mb/d of cuts back into the market over a period stretching out to December 2026. Following an expected hike of 137 kb/d in April they surprised the market by lifting production targets by 411 kb/d for May and then an additional 411 kb/d again for June. It is widely expected that the group will decide to lift production targets by another 411 kb/d also for July. That is probably mostly priced in the market. As such it will probably not have all that much of a bearish bearish price impact on Monday if they do.
It is still a bit unclear what is going on and why they are lifting production so rapidly rather than at a very gradual pace towards the end of 2026. One argument is that the oil is needed in the market as Middle East demand rises sharply in summertime. Another is that the group is partially listening to Donald Trump which has called for more oil and a lower price. The last is that Saudi Arabia is angry with Kazakhstan which has produced 300 kb/d more than its quota with no indications that they will adhere to their quota.
So far we have heard no explicit signal from the group that they have abandoned the plan of measured increases with monthly assessments so that the 2.2 mb/d is fully back in the market by the end of 2026. If the V8 group continues to lift quotas by 411 kb/d every month they will have revived the production by the full 2.2 mb/d already in September this year. There are clearly some expectations in the market that this is indeed what they actually will do. But this is far from given. Thus any verbal wrapping around the decision for July quotas on Saturday will be very important and can have a significant impact on the oil price. So far they have been tightlipped beyond what they will do beyond the month in question and have said nothing about abandoning the ”gradually towards the end of 2026” plan. It is thus a good chance that they will ease back on the hikes come August, maybe do no changes for a couple of months or even cut the quotas back a little if needed.
Significant OPEC+ spare capacity will be placed back into the market over the coming 1-2 years. What we do know though is that OPEC+ as a whole as well as the V8 subgroup specifically have significant spare capacity at hand which will be placed back into the market over the coming year or two or three. Probably an increase of around 3.0 – 3.5 mb/d. There is only two ways to get it back into the market. The oil price must be sufficiently low so that 1) Demand growth is stronger and 2) US shale oil backs off. In combo allowing the spare capacity back into the market.
Low global inventories stands ready to soak up 200-300 mb of oil. What will cushion the downside for the oil price for a while over the coming year is that current, global oil inventories are low and stand ready to soak up surplus production to the tune of 200-300 mb.
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