January 17, 2008

 

China corn prices seen to stabilize on government auctions

 

 

China's corn prices were mostly stable in the week to Wednesday on sustained government auctions.

 

But as farmers were more willing to sell corn ahead of the Lunar New Year, some industrial processing plants lowered their corn purchase prices.

 

Corn prices in Dezhou, Shandong province, were between RMB1,660-RMB1,720 (US$229-US$237) per tonne, RMB20/tonne (US$3) lower from a week ago.

 

Average corn prices in Wuhan city, Hubei province, were around RMB1,800/tonne (US$248), stable from a week before.

 

Average corn prices in Hangzhou city in Zhejiang province were around CNY1,750/tonne (US$241), also unchanged.

 

China sold 27,483 tonnes of corn from its state reserves Tuesday, or 5.6 percent of the 491,009 tonnes it planned to sell.

 

Including this sale, the government has sold 508,630 tonnes of corn from its state reserves since last December, or 17 percent of the 3 million tonnes it intended to sell.

 

Corn prices are likely to stay stable in the near term with the government's macro controls, said Alibaba.com, a grain information provider.

 

China issued detailed price control measures for commodities Wednesday to curb the recent surge in food prices, after a series of earlier measures failed to be effective.

 

The measures cover sectors including edible oils, grains and their products, liquefied petroleum gas, dairy products, meat and eggs, it said.