September 21, 2007

Corn moves to three-month high on increased demand

Corn prices moved to a three-month high on Thursday (September 20) in US trading. December corn added 12 cents to move at US$3.7025 after touching as high as US$3.75 earlier in the day. Prices are up on speculation of increased demand.

In its weekly report, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said corn sales were up 95 percent from last week and nearly doubled trade expectations. Net sales of approximately 2.03 million were reported for the recent week, including 766,000 to Mexico and 577,900 to Japan. Sales figures are 37 percent above the numbers from a year ago.

A range of 900,000 to 1.3 million tonnes was expected.

Also, private exporters reported sales of 198,000 tonnes of corn to Mexico for the 2007/08 marketing year, which began September 1. The USDA requires any export activity of 100,000 or more tonnes to be reported daily. The rest is reported on a weekly basis.

Meanwhile, soy sales were on par with expectations, coming in at 513,600. A range of 300,000 to 650,000 had been predicted. Sales were up 48 percent from the last week, led by 153,700 in sales to Japan. In Thursday's trading, soy for November delivery were up 18 cents to US$9.89.00 a bushel.