Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Jun 04, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Jun 04, 2006 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Wheat Industry & Economy - Exports & Imports STC finalises 8 lakh t wheat import deal Our Bureau
The deal AWB to offer 5 lakh tonnes at $187 a tonne, cost & freight Mundra port. Agricore to provide 3 lakh tonnes at $198.20, $198.70 & $199.20 between July and September. Quality issues over Feb 10 wheat deal with AWB being sorted out.
New Delhi , June 3 The State Trading Corporation of India (STC) has finalised its import contract for eight lakh tonne of wheat from AWB Ltd and Agrico Trade & Finance SA. As per the deal clinched after negotiations on Friday, AWB, which is Australia's monopoly wheat shipper, will supply five lakh tonnes of wheat at $187 a tonne, cost & freight (c&f).
Delivery at Mundra
The entire quantity would be delivered between July and October at Mundra port in Kutch, which can handle large Panamax vessels with discharge rate of 10,000 tonnes a day, officials said. The Geneva-based Agrico will supply the balance three lakh tonnes, which would be delivered in three lots of one lakh tonne each at eastern coast ports for $198.20 per tonne in July, $198.70 a tonne in August and $199.20 a tonne in September. All these are c&f rates.
Lukewarm response
"The exact ports would depend on the monsoon conditions. Since Mundra is in a low-rainfall area, it is possible to undertake discharge there round the year," the officials added. The eight lakh tonne contract finalised is part of a 30 lakh tonnes tender that was floated by STC on May 8. The tender received lukewarm response with eight parties bidding for a total quantity of around 26 lakh tonne. With not all bidders meeting the financial and technical norms stipulated in the tender, STC eventually settled for the bids submitted by AWB and Agrico and arrived at the final negotiated rates. Earlier, on February 10, STC floated a tender for five lakh tonne, which was awarded to AWB at $ 178.75 per tonne c&f. Though, theentire wheat was to arrive between March and mid-May, AWB has so far delivered a mere 91,000 tonnes. The remaining quantity has been held up because of AWB's belated submission that it would not be able to meet the `stiff' zero-ergot tolerance condition stipulated in the tender.
`Issue being sorted out'
STC's subsequent tender did allow for presence of the fungal pathogen up to 0.01 per cent by weight, but the organisation made it clear that this relaxation would not apply retrospective as demanded by STC. "The issue is being sorted out," the officials said without elaborating how this would be done. On Friday, the Union Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, admitted that the response to the tenders had been below expectations.
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