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NEW DELHI, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Indian state-run trading firm
PEC Ltd is to buy 150,000 tonnes of wheat from Australian trading
firm JK International at around $395 a tonne against an import
tender, a government source said on Friday.
PEC tendered last month to buy 350,000 tonnes of grain and 6
trading firms offered to supply nearly double that amount, with
JK International emerging as the lowest bidder.
"We have decided to buy only 150,000 tonnes out of 630,000
tonnes of bids we had received," the official, who did not wish
to be identified, told Reuters.
"We opted to buy only 150,000 tonnes as we got the best deal
for this quantity." PEC will pay $395-$401 per tonne.
JK International had bid to sell 400,000 tonnes, but only
150,000 tonnes at the lower end of an offered price range.
A trade source said that PEC was talking to Concordia for an
additional 65,000 tonnes.
Three state-run firms, MMTC, PEC and State Trading Corp Ltd
<STCI.BO> have been authorised by the government to import up to
one million tonnes of wheat, equally split between them.
Last month, MMTC <MMTC.BO> bought 342,000 tonnes of wheat at
a weighted average price of $400 per tonne, while STC is expected
to float a tender on Monday.
The government source said STC could tender for the wheat not
bought by PEC as well as its own allotment.
Before the MMTC deal, India had tied up import contracts for
1.3 million tonnes in 2007, with the last deal in September
struck at a weighted average price of $389.45 per tonne.
In 2006, India, the world's second-biggest wheat producer,
imported the grain for the first time in six years, buying 5.5
million tonnes as prices flared due to a poor crop.
(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Biman Mukherji, Editing by
Mark Williams)
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Keywords: INDIA WHEAT/