Wheat and corn jumped after Russian drones damaged a Ukrainian port facility on the Danube river, adding to a spate of attacks aimed at crippling the country’s exports from ports on the Danube and the Black Sea.
(Bloomberg) — Wheat and corn jumped after Russian drones damaged a Ukrainian port facility on the Danube river, adding to a spate of attacks aimed at crippling the country’s exports from ports on the Danube and the Black Sea.
Russian forces struck the southern part of the Odesa region overnight with drones, regional governor Oleh Kiper said in a Telegram statement. Some objects of port and industrial infrastructure caught fire, and a silo was damaged, according to the statement.
Russia attacked Izmail, people with knowledge of the matter said later, referring to one of Ukraine’s biggest river ports for grain which is located on the Danube at the border with Romania.
Ukrainian prosecutors said that a silo, grain hangars, fuel storage at a cargo terminal, and other storage and administrative buildings were damaged. The headquarters of the port authority was significantly damaged, they said.
Wheat futures in Chicago jumped as much as 4.9% to $6.84 a bushel, before paring gains to $6.675. Corn rose as much as 3.2%.
Russia has previously attacked ports in the Odesa region and on the Danube river in a bid to disrupt Ukraine’s exports. Last week it attacked the Danube port of Reni, sending wheat up by the exchange limit that day.
Ukraine has continued to explore alternative grain export routes after Moscow pulled out of an agreement allowing shipments through the Black Sea on July 17. Romania plans to expand one of the key transit routes for grain from Ukraine, while Kyiv has also discussed using Croatian ports for shipments.
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