On Friday, corn prices climbed, benefiting from China’s strong demand and purchases, while Thursday marked its third consecutive rise.
Corn futures for May delivery increased by 0.73% to $636.62 per metric ton on March 17’s Asian afternoon session.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported 641,000.00 tons of corn sales to China. Its total confirmed shipments in the past three days to 1.92 million tons.
Other traders predict that the USDA will announce deals of 600,000.00 tons increase of grain before the weekends.
In addition, the most active futures on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) improved by 0.40% to $6.29 per bushel.
Also, China expects its 2022/23 imports to reach 18.00 million tons. However, it is down from almost 22.00 million last year.
Furthermore, sales to the Asian country have not been unveiled for successive days since May 2021. The last corn flash to China before this current week was in August.
The numbers showed there could be more storage for old-crop US corn business in China. Nevertheless, the last tally would depend on Brazil’s next harvest and the future situation of Ukraine’s deliveries.
Moreover, Beijing was silent about the Russia-Ukraine issue. Still, it gave support to the Black Sea grain deal. It indirectly acknowledges Ukraine’s importance for China’s corn imports.
Brazil Might Come Out as Top Corn Exporter
According to the USDA, Brazil would ship more corn than the US this year. However, it only surpassed America’s exports once before due to a drought in 2012/13.
Besides, if Brazil emerges as a powerful grain-transporting nation, its status might not be temporary. The recent reopening to the markets in China could mean that it will have ongoing competition with the US for the title of the top exporter.
Since Brazil’s corn acreage rose by 72.00%, it is expected to surpass the US’ planted area for corn, based on experts. As a result, it reached 54,50 million acres in 2022.
