CBH breaks daily record with over 525,000 tonnes received last Monday

By: "Farm Tender" News
Cattle News
Dec 07, 2018
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OPERATIONS UPDATE

This week was the biggest of the season so far with all zones receiving good tonnages, and many sites breaking daily receival records.

Despite afternoon weather interruptions in the Central Wheatbelt, CBH sites took a record one-day receival of 525,035 tonnes on Monday 3 December, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 by over 15,000 tonnes.

“Things have finally started to pick up in the Esperance and Albany zones, with both receiving more than 600,000 tonnes this week,” said General Manager, Operations, David Capper.

“It’s shaping up to be a larger than expected harvest, with Geraldton zone already exceeding its total receivals estimate this week.”

“Improvements we have made to inloading capacity, and the take-up of the CDF app this harvest is helping to get the large tonnages through efficiently, which is evidenced by the amount of receival records being broken across the network,” said Mr Capper.

ALBANY

The Albany zone had a great week receiving over 620,000 tonnes taking the season total to 1.25 million tonnes. As a comparison to the same time last year the zone had received 1.7 million tonnes.

The majority of grain received continues to be barley, making up around two-thirds of all grain received. The rest is made up of nearly equal parts canola and wheat at this stage.

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“Grain quality remains good with 48 per cent of barley received being of malt grade and wheat protein levels being slightly higher than we expected earlier in the season.”

“Rain received over the southern and western parts of the zone this week will slow receivals for a few days and we expect that wheat deliveries will ramp up again over the next week,” said Albany Zone Manager, Greg Thornton.

ESPERANCE

The Esperance zone has had a good week of deliveries with over 600,000 tonnes being received in the last seven days. Growers in all parts of the zone are now fully into the swing of harvest with wheat making up most of the tonnes being received.

“Daily receival records were broken at both Beaumont and Munglinup this week, which I think highlights the good harvest conditions we have had recently, and in the case of Beaumont, the value of improved throughput at the site,” said Esperance Zone Manager, Mick Daw.

“Another good week of weather will see a number of growers finish their harvest,” said Mr Daw.

GERALDTON

Geraldton zone has had another huge week with the zone with excellent tonnages received on a daily basis.

Most growers are harvesting wheat, with barley and canola almost complete and lupins still very steady.

This week Geraldton zone exceeded its harvest estimate, and with most of the zone still harvesting, the network is functioning at full capacity getting in the huge daily tonnages being received.

“We are coming under extreme pressure at some sites for storage capacity with some services having to close off, but we are managing as best we can with our rail and road transport resources,” said Geraldton Zone Manager, Duncan Gray.

“The northern part of the zone is starting to slow down and we will look at closing some of the northern sites at some stage in the near future,” said Mr Gray.

KWINANA

The Kwinana zone had another big week coming close to reaching 5 million total tonnes received.

Barley and canola deliveries are winding down and most growers have moved on to harvesting wheat, which is yielding better than expected.

Severe weather across the north and east of the zone earlier in the week slowed deliveries down for a few days.

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“There were some isolated spot fires caused by lightning around the Goomalling area, and large hail near Tammin unfortunately caused some crop damage to a few growers, but it appears the damage was not widespread and will hopefully have no, or minimal impact on crop quality,” said Kwinana Assistant Zone Manager, Allan Walker.

So far, this season the Kwinana zone has broken daily receival records at 14 sites.

MARKET UPDATE

As the harvest is now approximately two thirds complete with over 10 million tonnes being received, the logistical exercise of moving grain to port for the summer shipping program has begun in earnest. The Western Australian shipping stem has more than two million tonnes, valued at more than A$300 million forecast to be shipped in December and the first half of January, which is potentially a record. The trade has been looking to cover these positions across both barley and wheat as the late harvest has seen growers selling later than usual.

Barley

Barley market malting/feed spread continued to wind in with malting barley only an A$8-10 per tonne premium above feed, with second grade malt now trading at parity to feed. Malting percentage of the total receivals to date continues to remain at about 35 per cent which is in line with previous seasons. However, with uncertainty in the market the demand for malt has been soft reflecting the lower premium. As a whole, demand for barley has been lumpy with some of the trade paying a slight premium to cover existing business to be shipped in late December or early January. Feed barley values are at levels close to where the trade see the next Saudi tenders however this is not expected for some weeks. As the barley harvest begins to slow, we think growers will hold some of their malting stocks, looking for higher values later in the year.

Canola

Canola pricing remained in the A$570 per tonne range this week with the trade looking to cover interest from European crushers. Prompt positions appear to have been filled and now Europe is looking for positions in the deferred months which should ensure grower pricing remains close to existing levels.

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Wheat

This week saw a continuation of lower protein wheat deliveries with the trade lifting the premium for hard wheat. Australian Hard 1 is now trading closed to A$400 per tonne free in store – a A$45 premium to APW1, which is well above the traditional premium of $10-25 per tonne. Additionally, the spread for ASW continues to increase being in the range of minus A$20-25 per tonne when compared to APW prices. APW1 this week remained in the range of A$350 per tonne free in store. Difficulties in Russia obtaining phytosanitary certificates at some ports has seen some export demand switch to Australia for prompt positions. However, the shipping stem for December and a large part of January is fully booked across Western Australia leaving little room for additional volume. Grower contracting continues to be relatively consistent this week as growers start to look at options for the lower protein.

https://www.cbh.com.au/