Poor response has forced state-run MMTC to cancel the wheat export tender for shipping about one lakh tonnes from the Food Corporation of India godowns at Kakinada port on Tuesday.

MMTC received only a single bid for $268 a tonne from global trader Glencore, much below the floor price of $300 a tonne set by the Government. Official sources told Business Line that MMTC may re-float the tender some time soon.

MMTC’s tender on Tuesday came almost after a gap of about 25 days. Now, it will be interesting to watch the kind of response that STC and PEC get for their tenders, due to be opened on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. Two tenders of STC for exporting one lakh tonnes would be opened on Wednesday, while three tenders from PEC for shipment of 1.1 lakh tonnes are due on Thursday.

“Glencore’s bid reflects the price for wheat shipment from Black Sea origin headed for the East Asian market,” said Tejinder Narang, grains trade analyst. Seen in isolation, this response shows that nobody is short for the Far Eastern markets, he added.

State-run entities such as MMTC, STC and PEC have been floating export tenders to ship out wheat from Government stocks since July 2012. In the last financial year, these entities would have shipped out around three million tonnes from Government stocks, while exports by private traders stood around 2.6 million tonnes for the period.

In the current financial year starting April, exports from Government stocks stood at around 5 lakh tonnes, while shipments by private traders are estimated at 3-4 lakh tonnes, sources said.

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