South Korea’s KOCOPIA drops corn purchase tender as prices surge

South Korea’s KOCOPIA passed on a feed corn purchase tender citing prohibitively high prices, market sources said Wednesday.

The tender was for up to 165,000 mt of optional origin feed corn for delivery in April.

Corn prices have rallied in recent weeks, with the front month CBOT March contract climbing from $3.46/bu on January 12, to surpass the $3.63/bu level, propelled by renewed weather concerns and strong performances from both soybeans and wheat.

Physical prices have also firmed globally as corn demand has been fired by its relative price competitiveness as an animal feed, with US Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest prices the cheapest origins globally.

The USDA has unveiled a string of US private export sales since January 26, which has seen some 1.2 million mt booked out of US ports, including a 130,000 mt delivery for South Korea reported on February 5.

Agricensus assessed the FOB US Gulf corn market at $166.50/mt Tuesday, the highest cash price since it began assessing prices on September 29.

That compares with Ukraine FOB corn prices, which were assessed at $175.25/mt, and prices in Argentina, which were assessed at $174.75/mt FOB Up River.