US export sales see soy stun, corn disappoint, wheat improve

Volumes of US soybean export sales reported in weekly USDA data stunned analysts Thursday, as volumes raced past 2 million mt, outpacing the four-week average and dramatically up from the previous week.

Corn came in on par with expectations, and wheat doubled the modest volumes that analysts had anticipated.

For soybeans, expectations had been in the region of 1 to 1.5 million mt, with the lower end broadly reflecting the previous week’s volumes, and the upper end reflecting similar volumes to that seen in the same period of 2016.

Some 1.3 million went to China, with Thailand, Indonesia, Germany and the Netherlands also securing volumes.

China also led the way in actual exports, which also totalled 2 million mt, with China taking 1.27 million mt.

Corn net sales came in at 876,400 mt, representing a 46% increase on the previous week but still short of the four-week average by 30%.

While the volume was within expectations, which stretched from 800,000 to 1.2 million, volumes for the same period of 2016 stood at some 1.5 million mt.

Exports reached 592,300 mt, with Mexico taking the lion’s share – with the data released one day after US farmers mounted a Farmers4NAFTA social media campaign aimed at ongoing NAFTA renegotiation talks.

Wheat saw net sales of 321,400, nearly double the previous week and comfortably in the middle of analysts’ expectations, while exports were 396,400 mt.