US weekly corn net export sales hit record, soy falls 49% on week

US net export sales for corn hit a marketing year high of 2.5 million mt in the week ending March 8, according to data released by the USDA.

The figures came in almost double average analyst expectations, 35% up on the week and 41% up on the four-week high.

Half of the volume was sold to Japan (838,000 mt) and Taiwan (388,600 mt).

Meanwhile, net export sales for soybean also defied analyst expectations – coming in at 1.27 million mt versus average analyst guesses of 700,000 mt.

The figures were half that of the previous week, but up 30% from the previous four-week average.

Around 509,000 mt were sold to China, with a further 200,000 mt to unknown destinations and 188,300 mt to Egypt.

US sales commitments to China so far this marketing year stand at 28.2 million mt, 6.3 million mt behind sales commitments made this time last year despite China forecast to buy around 5% more beans on the international market.

Net sales of wheat reached 162,800 mt, down 58% from the previous week and 47% from the prior 4-week average and below analyst expectations of 250,000 mt.