Corn Buyers Show Love for Bargains
Traders book over 55 million bushels at end of March.
Bryce Knorr
Published: Apr 8, 2010
Who can resist a good sale? Apparently, it’s not buyers in the corn market, who jumped on low prices at the end of March and booked some 55.8 million bushels of net new bookings. That was much better than trade expectations, and is helping put the total for the 2009 closer to meeting the pace forecast by USDA for the marketing year.
South Korea, as expected, led the list of buyers, taking more than 50% of the total, resolving the confusion over whether trade rumors were double-counting some purchases. Japan and Mexico also showed up as top customers, with Egypt again in for U.S. originations.
Actual shipments of U.S. corn fell off a little, under 35 million bushels, less than the rate needed to be moved every week for the rest of the marketing year. That’s yet another indication end users saw last week’s prices as an opportunity.
Wheat sales of almost 20 million bushels also beat trade guesses, improving chances USDA won’t lower its forecast for the year any more. Some unusual buyers were in for cargoes, including South Africa and China. Nigeria again was a big buyer, taking 7.7 million bushels of new crop. Most of the sales were hard red winter and spring wheat, with soft wheat continuing to face extreme competition on world markets.
USDA also announced the sale of another 4.6 million bushels of new crop to unknown destinations under its daily reporting system, with a quarter of the deal soft red winter wheat.
Soybean sales and shipments continue to wind down, with both a little over 16 million bushels for the week. Still, both those totals are above rates forecast by USDA, which could lead the agency to increase its forecast for the marketing year in Friday’s supply and demand report.
China was the big buyer again, but only took new crop, leaving the old crop market to other buyers who have been patiently waiting for opportunities to step in.
For the complete export report, click here.
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Weekly Export Sales (million bushels)
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AS OF WEEK ENDING
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4/1/10
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Actual
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Last Week
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Trade Est.
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USDA F'cast
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Export Ship-ments
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USDA F'cast
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% of USDA Commit.
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Ave.
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% of USDA Ship-ments
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Ave.
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Wheat
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19.6
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17.8
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12.9
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4.0
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16.6
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19.8
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95%
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92%
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80%
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79%
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Corn
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55.8
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32.5
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29.5
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21.0
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34.4
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39.1
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74%
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73%
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54%
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57%
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Soybeans
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16.3
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14.3
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9.2
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3.1
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16.2
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5.7
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95%
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93%
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88%
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84%
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Source: USDA, Reuters
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Tagged: usda, wheat, soybeans, soybean, winter wheat
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