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Soybean Sales to China Fade

China was once again the biggest buyer of soybeans in this morning’s weekly export report from USDA. But while the world’s largest soy importer took nearly 70% of the purchases, the total for the week was a marketing year low of just 14.1 million bushels. In addition, most of the deals involved shifts of previously done deals to “unknown destinations,” rather than new purchases.

Traders expected sales to come in at 26.6 million bushels.

While sales were slow, the lower amount beat the weekly rate needed to meet USDA forecast for the marketing year. Moreover, China continues to load out previously purchased supplies, with shipments strong at 46.8 million bushels. Total commitments are 93% of USDA’s forecast, an unusually high amount for the first half of the marketing year. Moreover, there appeared to be few outright cancellations, one of the market’s biggest worries.

Though soybean sales ran out of gas last week, corn and wheat enjoyed better success. Wheat sales were down as expected from the previous week’s big numbers, but were still respectable at 17.7 million bushels. Mexico was the big customer, taking half the total, and was also a big buyer of corn, following drought losses. Our neighbor to the south accounted for 40% of the weekly sales. Shipments were also strong, topping 44 million bushels, with most of those going to Asia.

USDA this morning also reported sales of 4.3 million bushels to South Korea under its daily reporting system. These likely were previously disclosed in the trade.

For the complete export report, click here.