December 13, 2003

China Export Two Corn Shipments To Malaysia in December

This month, China is expected to export two shipments of corn to Malaysia, Southeast Asia's biggest corn importer. Each shipment contains about 50,000 tons of corn. Kuala Lumpur-based traders reveal the information today.

One of the shipments, that were contracted earlier, was already on its way and is expected to arrive by next week. The other was expected to arrive towards the end of the month, they added.

"These are the last two shipments from the outstanding contracts for Chinese corn cargoes this year," said one trader. "Let's see what happens after that."

However yesterday, traders talks about their speculations that China might not be able to meet its corn export commitments and sales looked set to grind to a halt at the end of December as uncertainty reigns over next year's grain trade policies.

There has been speculations of cancellations or defaults, with buyers and Chinese suppliers negotiating the quantities that might be affected as the country could not load all cargoes sold for shipment in December and early next year.

"I have not heard of any cancellations of December shipments to Malaysia," said one trader.

Last month, a contract to ship one panamax-sized Chinese corn cargo to Malaysia was cancelled after the seller found it difficult to source the material from the Asian supplier.

Malaysia is China's second-biggest corn customer, after South Korea, taking more than 90% of its annual imports of about 2.4 million tons from the Asian supplier.