May 13, 2011
US corn sales recover after prices reach five-week low
Last week, US corn export sales bounced back from the previous week's 6-1/2 month low due to poor prices reviving demand from some traditional purchasers.
However, overall corn demand remained tepid amid competition from cheaper alternative feed grains such as barley, sorghum and feed wheat, analysts said after the USDA released its weekly export sales data on Thursday (May 12).
Net corn export sales in the week ended May 5, totalled 433,800 tonnes for shipment in the 2010/11 marketing year, which ends on August 31.
New-crop sales totalled 23,700 tonnes in a week when benchmark US corn futures <Cc1> fell to a five-week low.
Japan, the world's top importer of US corn, bought 175,300 tonnes of old-crop corn and 10,900 of new-crop, while number three buyer South Korea purchased 110,100 tonnes, USDA data showed.
The week's sales were within the range of trade estimates for 350,000-550,000 tonnes.
Soy export sales rebounded from the previous week's 14-month low, but fell short of trade expectations.
Sales totalled 62,200 tonnes last week, most of it for 2010/11 marketing year shipment, compared with estimates for 100,000-300,000 tonnes.
Japan and Mexico were the week's top buyers, while China, the world's top soy importer, cancelled a net 49,000 tonnes in sales, USDA data showed.
Net export sales of US wheat last week were virtually unchanged from the previous week at 550,500 tonnes, 320,600 tonnes of which was for shipment by the end of the marketing year on May 31.
Hard red winter wheat accounted for 45% of the week's sales.
Weekly wheat shipments of more than one million tonnes were the highest for a single week since September 2007, USDA data showed.
However, with about 3-1/2 weeks remaining in the marketing year and just 30.8 million tonnes exported in the year to date, shipments will need to exceed one million tonnes each week to reach the USDA's 2010/11 export target of 34.7 million tonnes.
