Argentine strike keeps CBOT soy spread on the boil

The combination of an expanding port strike in Argentina and tight supplies of old-crop US soybeans looks set to keep Chicago Board of Trade soybean and soymeal spreads on the boil this week. The spread, or price difference, between the nearby May CBOT soybean futures contract and the deferred November contract settled Monday at 42 cents, premium May, its widest point in nearly three months. The actively traded July/November spread reached 49 cents, premium July, its widest since mid-December. Both the CBOT soybean and soymeal futures markets are inverted, with the nearby contracts trading at a premium to deferred months. The formation is the classic indication of a perceived shortage in near-term supplies. "This is obviously about the concerns in Argentina," Rich Feltes, senior vice president of MF Global Research, said of the spread activity. "It raises the prospect of some additional business shifted up here to the United States." The Argentine dockworker's strike began last week at two terminals at the San Martin port but expanded by Monday to most terminals at San Martin, San Lorenzo and Timbues. Workers striking over wages burned tires and prevented grain trucks from entering the ports near Rosario, in Santa Fe province, the country's biggest grains export complex. The strike has slowed shipments from the world's No 3 soy exporter at the start of a likely record-large South American soybean harvest.