US export sales jump for grains, soy slows as analysts’ views fall short

Both wheat and corn have seen a substantial pick up in net sales in the week ending November 2, but soybeans encountered a 39% decline week-on-week, as data released by the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service caught analysts by surprise.

As a precursor to the heavily anticipated November WASDE update due later Thursday, the report highlights the kick in wheat export sales – at 781,700 mt a marketing year-to-date high and 92% above the four-week average – with Iraq taking the bulk in a widely-reported 450,000 mt sale.

Wheat exports totalled 298,000 mt, down 21% on the previous week with Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea and Nigeria.

For corn, export sales topped 2.3 million mt, a 92% surge on the previous week, with exports at 489,800 mt. In both cases, the major recipient was Mexico, taking 1.1 million mt of the export sales and 577,700 mt of exports.

Soybean saw a substantial contraction.

China remained the number one buyer in export sales and exports, but overall the volumes were down 39% on the previous week, and 34% on the four-week average.

Net sales were at 1.1 million mt, with exports reaching 2.5 million mt.

As far as analysts’ expectations were concerned, the actual figures were well outside the range of expectations expressed – corn in particular delivering the surprise as sales were nearly double the lowest end of the range.

Soybeans failed to live up to expectations, with a range of 1.3 to 1.8 million anticipated, the 1.1 fell well short.

Wheat also managed to outperform the analysts’ range, the 781,700 mt well above the 350,000-550,000 mt range.