South Korea’s feed buyers snap up 6 cargoes in latest corn spree

South Korean feed buyers have secured as many as six corn cargoes in a day of tenders, market sources told Agricensus Tuesday.

NOFI took three cargoes, with KOCOPIA picking up two more while one private trade was also said to have been completed, according to a market source.

Each cargo was said to be a panamax size cargo, amounting to at least 300,000 mt of corn secured in the buying burst.

That complements a round of buying last week that saw Asian buyers pick up some 600,000 mt of corn for May and June delivery.

The latest tenders are thought to be mostly June through early July loading, with one for last half of May, with levels heard around $225-$227/mt as buyers drove a hard bargain.

“The problem was end users and buyers in Korea, Japan and Vietnam, they thought the price had hit the peak and they couldn’t pay any more,” one trader said.

Alongside that, with the Pacific Northwest the premier jumping off point for US corn exports to Asia, strained logistics on the back of bad weather and strong demand has seen cash prices firming, eating into the hub’s competitiveness.

However, as PNW approached parity with US Gulf, the potential for volumes to start shipping via the southern hub has helped to take some of the steam out of PNW values,

“Last Friday we saw the premium at around 130 over July for June or July loading,” the trader said, referring to a premium of $1.30/bu over the July futures contract.

“FOB has come down below 120 now; if it goes up more than 130 then the PNW price is similar to the US Gulf,” the trader said.

The move comes as the USDA revealed private export sales of 210,000 mt to South Korea.