China Buys Even More Beans Than Expected
Old crop purchase comes as a Lunar New Year's surprise.
Carolyn Thompson
Published: Feb 3, 2011
Chinese markets may be closed by the Lunar New Year holidays, but the world's largest soybean importer is still making big waves in the market.
This morning's weekly Export Sales report included previously announced purchases of new crop beans totaling some 111 million bushels. But the old crop total hit 38 million, doubling trade guesses. China took 35% of the 2010 crop tally officially, with “unknown destinations” and other Asian buyers also leading the list of buyers.
Shipments remain strong as well at 41.1 million bushels, twice the weekly rate needed to reach USDA's marketing year forecast.
Corn numbers this week were also a pleasant surprise, with the weekly total 48.7 million bushels, more than doubling expectations. Asian buyers dominated the trade, though Egypt was also in for 4.9 million bushels. Still, both shipments and total commitments remain behind the rate forecast by USDA, which could cause the government to soften its projection in next week's monthly crop report.
Despite all the talk about record high food prices, wheat exports were somewhat disappointing in the latest week, falling to 20.8 million bushels. Egypt was the leading buyer with 5.2 million bushels, with a couple of loads also shipped out to the country before protests escalated there.
For the complete export report, click here.
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AS OF WEEK ENDING
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1/27/11
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Tagged: usda, wheat, soybean
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