Corn, wheat, soybeans hit their mark in US grains for inspection

US corn, wheat and soybean export inspections all came in at the upper end of analysts’ expectations, although corn showed a fall week-on-week, data from the USDA revealed Monday.

Analysts expected corn exports in the region of 1.1 to 1.6 million mt, but the 1.5 million mt inspected was down 400,000 mt on the previous week.

Inspections for US Gulf exports were nearly double that of the Pacific Northwest, the data showed, 833,069 mt versus 459,359 mt, with Colombia, Mexico, Egypt and Japan leading the Gulf exports.

For the PNW, corn exports saw South Korea, China and Taiwan taking over 100,000 mt apiece.

For wheat, 483,058 mt was inspected for export, just shy of the 500,000 mt ceiling that analysts had expected, and an increase of 50,000 mt on the previous week.

The bulk set to move is hard red winter wheat departing from the US Gulf, with Iraq and the Philippines the two biggest single receivers.

Soybeans came in as the lowest of the three, but still at the upper end of expectations as 444,987 mt was inspected to move.

That was an increase of 60,000 mt week-on-week, with the total volume drawn from a myriad of small parcels as China’s buying dropped to zero for the main Gulf and PNW export hubs and just 11,438 mt for the internal container export market.

In volume terms, Egypt was the biggest buyer at 111,425 mt, with Mexico second.

Overall, corn is now 22% behind the export rate of 2017 with soybeans 12.3% behind the previous year’s rate and wheat 10% behind the same point of 2017.