Corn Sales Strong Again This Week
USDA weekly totals for soybeans lag, but fresh demand surfaces today.
Bryce Knorr
Published: Apr 12, 2012
Foreign customers were buying again in the corn market last week, ahead of Tuesday’s USDA report. But a tight cash market and stronger basis is keeping actual shipments of corn out of the country at relatively constrained levels.
Export sales came in at 38.4 million bushels in the latest week, almost all of it old crop. But shipments totaled just 25.9 million bushels, 30% less than the weekly rate needed through August to achieve USDA’s current forecast for the 2011 crop.
China, a big buyer recently, booked another 2.4 million bushels. But it has yet to begin shipping out recent purchases, according to today’s report.
GLOBAL MARKET: Buyers are picking up US commodities on the dips. Soybean business was mixed. Weekly sales reported this morning were a bit of a disappointment at 23.4 million bushels. But shipments are running three times the rate needed to reach USDA’s forecast. And the government reported the sale of another 11.1 million bushels of old and new crop this morning under its daily reporting system for large purchases. About 40% of that was identified as Chinese purchases, the rest to unknown destinations. Those deals will show up in next week’s report.
Total soybean commitments are up to 92% of the government’s forecast for the 2011 crop marketing year, ahead of the usual pace for this time of year, driven by lower production caused by drought in South America.
LATEST FIGURES: Buyers want corn, but tight markets slow exports. Wheat sales of almost 20 million bushels were at the top end of trade guesses, with hard red winter wheat deals dominating. Shipments still remain slower than last year, although the rate so far is about average for this time of year. New crop sales are down from last year but are still above average, with end users starting to get a little more concerned about supplies of milling quality wheat.
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Tagged: usda, Drought, winter wheat, hard red winter wheat
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