US corn export sales double expectations, wheat disappoints

Corn export sales for the week of January 5-11 exceeded analyst expectations by more than double Friday, with 1.88 million mt revealed in the USDA’s weekly highlights.

Sales have underperformed in recent weeks, with analysts polled expecting only a modest range of 500,000 to 750,000 mt.

Some 770,200 mt was listed under unknown destinations, leaving Japan (415,600 mt), Peru (157,000 mt), and Mexico (134,000 mt) as the top three named destinations.

Actual exports were on the disappointing side though, the 659,700 mt representing a 26% fall week-on-week, and a 5% deviation from the four-week average.

Wheat export sales were up week-on-week, but still came in at a below-expectations 153,100 mt, again outside the range of 250,000 to 500,000 mt.

Exports topped 422,400 mt.

Soybeans saw net sales of 1.24 million mt, in the middle of a wide range that had encompassed 800,000 mt to 1.4 million mt, with China at the forefront for 576,000 mt, along with Mexico and Egypt, securing 238,000 mt and 116,100 mt respectively.

Exports came in at 1.17 million mt, down 24% on the previous week with China taking over half of the volume – 667,600 mt.

Year-to-date

US exports continue to lag previous years, however, with soybean exports reaching 30.9 million mt, down 5.21 million mt on the same point of last year.

Corn is further adrift, with cumulative exports for the marketing year reaching 12.2 million mt – down 5.72 million mt from a total commitment of 28.99 million mt, and less than a quarter of the USDA’s projected volume of 48.9 million mt.

Wheat is closer to expectations, with all wheat exports clocking in at 14.36 million mt, nearly exactly 1 million mt behind the same point of last year from a total commitment of 19.69 million mt.