April 25, 2012

Sinograin to buy US corn if price is right

Sinograin, the state stockpiler China Grain Reserves Corp., said on Monday (Apr 23) that it will continue to purchase US corn if the price is right and that its stance on corn imports is still unchanged.

"Sinograin will import corn when there is market demand and the price is right," company spokesman Cheng Bingzhou told Dow Jones Newswires.

But he said he was unable to confirm reports last week that Sinograin bought 500,000 to one million tonnes of US corn to take advantage of a recent price decline.

Sinograin general manager Bao Kexin said in March that the company will continue to import corn this year if there is a need and prices are acceptable. Bao's comments suggest that imports have become a regular matter for the state stockpiler, which used to source domestic crops to replenish state reserves.

Sinograin last year bought more than three million tonnes of US corn to replenish reserves.

China imported 472,026 tonnes of corn in March, data published Saturday by the Hong Kong-based China Customs Statistics Information Center showed.

January-March shipments surged to 1.74 million tonnes, roughly equal to 2011 imports, mostly the result of already reported bookings made last year for US corn from Sinograin, the data showed.