Crude futures settle lower

Oil prices fell on Tuesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for August delivery decreased by 65 cents, or 0.88 percent, to settle at 73.21 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for August delivery lost 82 cents, or 1.05 percent, to settle at 77.08 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

China's summer grain procurement has entered its peak season, with cumulative purchases exceeding 30 million tons nationwide, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration said on Tuesday.

During this year's peak season, the country's wheat procurement volume is expected to reach about 100 million tons, the same level as last year.

Procurement is progressing across all regions. Premium wheat varieties are selling well at higher prices than standard wheat, reflecting demand for high-quality commodities, the administration said.

"Currently, the average purchase price of wheat in major producing areas stands at 1.21 yuan per jin (about 0.36 U.S. dollars per kg), while the purchase price for high-quality varieties can fetch an additional 0.1 yuan more per jin. This additional pricing for high-quality grain has effectively motivated farmers to grow and sell better-quality grain," said Luo Shouquan, head of the grain reserves department under the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration.

Major grain purchasing depots across China are stepping up their application of intelligent equipment to expedite the handling and storage of newly harvested grain.

In central China's Henan Province, a China Grain Reserves Group (Sinograin) depot has adopted a hydraulic unloading system that allows the grain to flow smoothly from the transport truck onto the conveyor belt by gravity.

For a group of four warehouse workers, the new system reduces the grain unloading labor time from nearly two hours to about 20 minutes.

"The grain quality inspection process is fully automated and very quick. We can make several more grain transportation trips in one day, which increases our income," said Liu Xiaofei, a local farmer.

This year, the peak summer grain purchasing period is expected to run through the end of September, and various regions have prepared storage capacity totaling 110 million tons in preparation. The Agricultural Development Bank of China has initially allocated 150 billion yuan (about 22 billion U.S dollars) in dedicated credit funds.

"Next, we will coordinate efforts to ensure market-based procurement and policy-driven storage, continuously strengthen market monitoring and early warning mechanisms, improve contingency plans for extreme weather, and enhance post-harvest services such as grain drying and cleaning to ensure stable market operations and smooth channels for farmers to sell their grain," said Luo.