Soybean Shipments Reach Marketing Year High, But Corn Lags
Asian buyers take a pass on wheat and corn
Bryce Knorr
Published: Nov 6, 2008
The Chinese buying spree in the U.S. soybean market remained in high gear last week, highlighting an otherwise lackluster export sales report Thursday morning.
For the second straight week the U.S. shipped more than 30 million bushels of beans to the world's largest importer, 56% of a marketing year high total of 54.7 million. China also accounted for 72% of the 32.9 million bushels of new sales, as total commitments have reached 50% of the level forecast by the government for the marketing year.
Chinese importers began buying U.S. beans aggressively last month, after the government there moved to buy up supplies from local farmers to boost inventories depleted during its attempt to control food inflation ahead of the summer Olympics. Processors turned to imports, which were cheaper than buying them domestically despite a large local harvest this fall.
China also announced a plan to buy 200 million bushels of corn from its farmers to boost prices and build reserves, but that move is not expected to result in significant imports, though it could help keep grain from a record harvest off the Asian market. The U.S. could use the business, because net new sales of 18.6 million bushels were again disappointing, falling below both trade estimates and the weekly rate forecast by USDA for the marketing year.
Japan took more than half the weekly total, but still is not buying as aggressively as it does most years. Other Asian buyers have cut back even more, turning to feed wheat, which is plentiful out of the Black Sea. Taiwan bought 2 million bushels of feed wheat today, for example.
Wheat sales are also suffering from lack of Asian demand, with Japan again leading the list of no-shows. Purchases have been slow to start up again after they were suspended in September, due to a problem with tainted imported rice. Japan bought no U.S. wheat at its regular tender on Thursday, the sixth straight deal where it bought nothing or less than bid.
Still, thanks to good early sales totals for the year remain well ahead of the pace needed to reach USDA's forecast for the marketing year. That could lead the agency to increase its estimate in Monday's supply and demand report.
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Tagged: wheat, usda, Harvest, soybean
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