May 12, 2004

China's 2004 Corn Stockpiles to Fall Further

An eFeedLink Exclusive Report
 

Based on estimates, China's new corn supply for year 2004 is expected at 114 million tons, a fall of 7.4 million tons compared to the previous year. The consumption of feed corn for this year is forecast to be at 91.56 million tons, up by 13.1 million tons from the year before.

Industrial corn consumption, such as for the production of cornstarch, ethanol, maltose, citric acid, is expected to reach 14.5 million tons in 2004, up by 2 million tons from 2003. Corn export is estimated at 8 million tons for 2004, a fall of 7.25 million tons compared with the previous year. China's 2004 total corn consumption including exports is expected to hit 131 million tons, which is 4.76 million tons less than the year before.

The gap between China's corn supply and demand for year 2004 is estimated to be 16.82 million tons. As compared with 2002/2003, the supply / demand gap is up by 2.4 million tons. Although there is a drastic drop in China's corn exports this year, its 2004 corn stockpiles are expected to fall further.