August 5, 2011

US soy export sales surge last week

The largest US soy export sales for this year took place last week, jumping 82% over the last reporting period and exceeding traders' forecasts, according to the USDA on Thursday (Aug 4).

New-crop soy sales totalled 1.085 million tonnes for the week ending July 27, the most since late January with top global soy buyer China accounting for 86% of the haul.

However, China cancelled 538,000 tonnes of old-crop beans, bringing the combined marketing year of all US soy exports to 680,200 tonnes. That beats analyst and trader estimates ranging from 450,000-650,000 tonnes.

Corn exports, combined old- and new-crop, came in at 758,700 tonnes, the biggest in two weeks but below estimates ranging from 850,000 to 1.1 million tonnes.

Still, sales to number one corn buyer Japan for a combined 404,600 tonnes were the most since April, USDA data showed.

Exports of all classes of US wheat of 504,100 tonnes were the largest in three weeks and narrowly beat trader expectations of 350,000-500,000 tonnes.

Japan was the biggest wheat buyer, with a purchase of 117,300 tonnes of mostly hard red winter and white wheat varieties and all for shipment during the current marketing year.