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Corn Buyers Come Back to the U.S.

Strong soybean sales are nothing new, and the total for the latest week was again stellar in this morning's roundup from USDA. But in the “man bites dog” category, corn business took a great leap forward, with net new bookings setting a marketing year high of 48.3 million bushels.

While year-to-date totals remain in a bit of a hole compared to average, the results were a shot-in-the arm for a market that needs it. Even with the strong showing, some buyers have rejected tenders or switched to alternate feeds.

Big buyers this week included regular Asian customers like Japan and South Korea, with drought-hit Mexico also in for big amounts. Egypt made the top of the list as well.

That's something the U.S. hasn't been able to do lately in wheat, with the large Middle East importer again filling its snap tender this week mostly from Russia, with a little French thrown in too. The weekly total for wheat was again dismal at just 12.7 million bushels, making it all but inevitable that USDA will be forced to lower its forecast of sales for the year.

The U.S. continues to sell wheat to a variety of buyers, but most of the deals are for small size vessels, which enjoy cheaper shipping costs. Larger vessels have been booked to carry raw materials to fuel the booming economy in China, including U.S. soybeans.

Indeed, China was a big buyer again this week, helping lift the weekly total to 34.7 million bushels, above both last week's tally and trade expectations.

For the complete export report, click here.