SINGAPORE, Jan 13 (Reuters) - India is expected to receive close to one million tonnes of wheat in January as delayed shipments from late last year and cargoes booked for delivery this month arrive from Australia and Ukraine.
Indian ports are scheduled to get around 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes of wheat from Ukraine and about 300,000 tonnes from Australia this month, traders said.
"We expect a bit of congestion at the ports," said one Singapore-based trader.
"There will be some delays in unloading and also silos at ports in southern India are packed with imported wheat."
Expectations of such large arrivals have dried up fresh demand for wheat with buyers staying away from the market.
"There are not many new deals being signed," said a second Singapore-based trader. "Further imports will largely depend on how the crop shapes up."
The Indian wheat crop, which is entering its crucial stages of development, will be harvested in April.
Separately in Asia, feed millers in the Philippines are expected to issue an international tender next week to buy feed wheat.
"They will seek one or two cargoes," the second trader said. One cargo is about 50,000 tonnes.
Chicago wheat futures Wv1 are on track to post a third week of gains after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said farmers slashed their winter wheat plantings to the lowest in more than a century.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture pegged U.S. winter wheat plantings for harvest in 2017 at 32.4 million acres, down 10 percent from a year ago and the least in more than a century.