On the fifth week of 2018(Feb.1 to 2), the International Grain Future Freight (IGF) reported the Panamax forward freight rate of U.S. Gulf-Tianjin route (soybean) from June to July 2018, the trend is shown as figure below.

Soybean harvest was delayed by frequent rains in Brazil's soybean-producing areas. From a national perspective, soybean harvesting was completed 3.8%, while it was 4.3% in the same period of last year. The weather forecast shows that the main soybean producing areas in Brazil will continue to be rainy. Thunderstorm and rainfall may further restrict the progress of soybean harvesting. However, there is no report on the impact of rainfall on soybean yield and quality.

In shipping market, the forward freight rate was US$ 33.94/ton on Feb.1 (Thursday). On Feb.2 (Friday), forward freight rates remained slightly lower and eventually settled at US$ 33.88 / ton, a decrease of 0.18% as compared with Feb.1.