CIF/FOB Gulf Grain-Corn barge bids firm as icy rivers slow shipments

CHICAGO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Spot basis bids for corn shipped by barge to the U.S. Gulf Coast firmed on Wednesday in a modest recovery from a sharp downturn in bids that was triggered by surging futures prices and a pickup in farmer sales, traders said.

* Icy river conditions in the Midwest slowed barge movement and underpinned CIF basis values.

* CIF soybean basis bids were mostly steady to weak as seasonally slowing U.S. soy demand weighed on the market.

* Chicago Board of Trade corn futures Cv1 hovered near one-year highs this week and soybean futures Sv1 were near three-month peaks. In response, farmers have accelerated sales of both crops to barge loading river elevators, boosting supplies available to exporters.

* Demand for soybeans from most private Chinese importers remained light due to soft crush margins and uncertainty around U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats and likely trade retaliation. However, state stockpiler Sinograin has been inquiring about near-term U.S. shipments from the Pacific Northwest, traders said.

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture is due to release weekly export sales data early on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect net U.S. corn sales of up to 1 million metric tons in the week ended Jan. 9, and old-crop soybean sales of up to 800,000 tons.

* CIF Gulf soybean barges loaded in January were bid 2 cents lower at 72 cents over CBOT March soybean SH25 futures. FOB export premiums for February loadings were down 3 cents at 87 cents over March futures.

* CIF January corn barges were bid 3 cents higher at about 66 cents over CBOT March corn CH25 futures. FOB offers for corn shipped from the Gulf in January were down 1 cent at 79 cents over March futures.

(Reporting by Karl Plume; Editing by Alan Barona)

((karl.plume@thomsonreuters.com; +1 313 484 5285))

For displays of CIF basis, click on the codes in brackets:
U.S. CIF Gulf soybeans GRYM
U.S. CIF Gulf corn GRYN
U.S. CIF Gulf SRW wheat GRYO
U.S. CIF Gulf HRW wheat GRYP
For displays of FOB basis, please click on the following codes in brackets:
U.S. FOB Gulf corn GRZC
U.S. FOB Gulf soybeans GRZD
U.S. FOB Gulf SRW wheat GRZE
U.S. FOB Gulf HRW wheat GRZF

LINKS Corn prices page:   cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=corn-cash-market
Wheat prices page:  cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=wheat-cash-market
U.S. barge freight                  BG/US
U.S. export sales estimates         USDA/EST
U.S. grain export summary           GRA/U
Brazil soybean export prices        SYBS
Brazil corn export prices           SYBX
Argentina grain prices              GRA/ARG
Russia grain prices                 GRA/RU