EU wheat slips with Chicago as export competition weighs

PARIS, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Euronext wheat fell on Thursday, two days after hitting a seven-week high, as a strong dollar weighed on U.S. export prospects while Black Sea supplies provided strong competition, traders said.

March wheat BL2H5 on Euronext was down 1.5% at 229.25 euros ($237.59) a metric ton by 1708 GMT.

The contract reached its highest since Oct. 24 on Tuesday at 235.50 euros, supported by a large Saudi import purchase and doubts over availability of Russian supply.

The dollar index .DXY hit a two-year high on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signalled a slower pace of interest rate cuts in 2025, pushing Chicago wheat Wv1 to a one-month low on Thursday. GRA/

"Overall, the recent rally in wheat prices seems to have run its course," British merchant ADM Agriculture said in a note. "The wheat market faces a mixed outlook as we approach the end of 2024."

Results from a Tunisian tender on Thursday also underscored ongoing competition from Black Sea supplies.

"There was some more export demand today with a tender for 100,000 tons from Tunisia but I would expect the Black Sea region including Bulgaria to get the main business," one German trader said.

"Russian prices do not seem to be rising and are stabilising at the same levels as Wednesday, still below west EU levels."

While Russian exports have slowed since last month, amid government steps to regulate flows, they may remain at a substantial volume near 4 million tons in December, traders said.

Cheap export prices in Argentina have also maintained stiff international competition.

Strategie Grains analysts cut their forecast of European Union soft wheat exports in 2024/25 to a six-year low, though they expect shipments to rebound next season in line with a larger projected harvest.

French and German export activity remained thin.

In Germany, one ship is loading 35,000 tons of German wheat for Ivory Coast and another is set to load 33,000 tons for Nigeria, traders said.

In France, data from the country's main grain port at Rouen showed the only wheat shipped outside the EU in the past week was 16,000 tons of feed wheat for Morocco.

Farm office FranceAgriMer on Wednesday cut its outlook for French soft wheat exports outside the EU this season to its lowest in at least 25 years.

($1 = 0.9649 euros)

(Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Michael Hogan in Hamburg; Editing by Richard Chang)

((gus.trompiz@thomsonreuters.com))