February 1, 2012

Japan purchases six cargoes of Argentinean corn

Trading executives said Tuesday (Jan 31) that aside from buying sorghum to cut costs, Japan has bought six cargoes of corn from Argentina's next crop, to be harvested by March.

Japan, the world's biggest corn importer, has recently bought at least 330,000 tonnes of split or combination cargoes from Argentina, they said. All cargoes contain around 27,500 tonnes each of corn and sorghum for April-June shipment, they said.

Japan has purchased 165,000 tonnes each of corn and sorghum.

More purchase deals are likely because Argentina's corn is as much as US$4/tonne cheaper than US corn but drought in major growing regions of Argentina is a concern, an executive with a global commodities trading company said.

US corn is now offered around US$326-328/tonne, cost and freight, for shipment to Japanese ports in April-May. A few weeks ago, Argentina's sorghum was available for as low as US$0.30 over the May corn futures contract on the Chicago Board of Trade, cost and freight, to Japanese ports.

Traders said Japan can cut costs while importing corn by also buying sorghum for shipment in the same cargo. Both are ingredients in animal feed.