STC launches wheat import tender

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Government-run State Trading Corp (STC) has launched a tender for wheat import, the company said on its Web site on Monday.

It said the tender would open for bidding on Dec. 17.

"We will import a maximum of 550,000 tonnes of wheat, depending on the prices offered to us," a government official said.

The wheat would be imported through the ports of Mundra, Kandla and Mumbai on the west coast, Cochin and Tuticorin in the south and Chennai, Kakinada and Vishakhapatnam on the east coast.

Last week, another state-run firm PEC Ltd decided to buy 150,000 tonnes of wheat against a tender for 350,000 tonnes from Australian trading firm JK International at around $395 a tonne.

The government official, who did not want to be identified, said STC had initially planned to import 350,000 tonnes but had now added the 200,000 tonnes that PEC had missed.

In October, the government had authorised MMTC Ltd, PEC and STC to import up to one million tonnes of wheat, equally split between them, to build large buffer stocks.

Last month, MMTC bought 342,000 tonnes of wheat at a weighted average price of $400 per tonne.

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.