US corn sales hold steady clip amid China purchases

US corn sales topped one million tonnes for a third straight week, with the government reporting sales of 241,000 tonnes to China.

The USDA, in its weekly export sales report, said old-crop corn sales (September-August) totalled 1.03 million tonnes last week. New-crop sales showed a net reduction of 173,900 tonnes. Traders had expected sales to total 1-1.3 million tonnes for both old- and new-crop supplies.

China cancelled 130,000 tonnes of new-crop corn it had purchased, but that amount was rolled into its purchases for shipment in the current marketing year ending August 31.

China, battling to tamp down rising domestic corn prices by selling supplies from its reserves, had purchased a total of 595,100 tonnes of corn from the US.

The purchases, the first in nearly four years, come amid speculation that China's corn crop last year was much smaller than officially stated by the country, and a shaky start to their corn seeding amid cold, wet weather.

CBOT corn futures have been invigorated by the sales to China, with traders expecting Beijing to buy even more until it's crop this year is safely in storage.

Meanwhile, USDA said export sales of soy totalled 175,400 tonnes of old-crop and 120,000 tonnes of new-crop supplies. Traders had estimated sales of 450,000 to 500,000 tonnes.