September 16, 2009
China sold 1.32 million tonnes of state-owned corn at the weekly auction on Tuesday (Sep 15), a drop of 29 percent from last week, despite offering a higher volume of 3.17 million tonnes.
The highest price paid was RMB1,660 (US$243.1) per tonne, which was lower than in the past two weekly auctions.
China National Grain and Oils Information Centre (CNGOIC) expected the country's corn output to fall 0.3 percent to 165.5 million tonnes while US Department of Agriculture on September 11 estimated China's corn crop at 160 million tonnes, down 2.5 million tonnes from last month's estimate due to the extended summer dryness.
However, corn output estimates by analysts are generally lower than the official forecast. They believed that the cut should be between 10 to 30 percent.
Spot corn prices reached around RMB2,000 per tonne in the southern province of Guangdong, prompting the government to transfer 300,000 tonnes of state corn to southern and eastern China for auction on Tuesday.
China's government is expected to begin purchasing corn from the new harvest for state reserves next month.
The following table shows the previous auction sales.
|
Date |
Volume sold
(tonnes) |
Highest price
(RMB/tonne) |
Volume offered
(tonnes) |
|
Sep 15 |
1,320,700 |
1,660 |
3,173,000 |
|
Sep 8 |
1,860,000 |
1,710 |
2,895,700 |
|
Sep 1 |
1,920,600 |
1,690 |
2,496,000 |
|
Aug 25 |
1,565,900 |
1,640 |
2,517,900 |
|
Aug 18 |
1,001,900 |
1,640 |
2,007,000 |
|
Aug 11 |
725,900 |
1,610 |
1,995,000 |
|
Aug 4 |
833,900 |
1,650 |
1,937,500 |
|
Jul 28 |
928,300 |
1,670 |
2,000,000 |
|
Jul 21 |
745,900 |
1,690 |
2,000,000 |
|
Total |
10,903,100 |
　 |
21,022,100 |
| US$1=RMB6.827 (Sep 16) | |||
