Weekly Grain Movement – Corn tops all estimates

Wheat also jumps higher, while soybeans slide slightly lower week-over-week.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

January 25, 2021

2 Min Read
branex/Thinkstock

The latest grain export inspection report from USDA, out Monday morning and covering the week through January 21, held mixed but mostly bullish data for traders to digest. Corn climbed moderately higher from a week ago and topped all analyst estimates. Wheat also bested all trade estimates after nearly doubling the prior week’s volume. Soybeans moved modestly lower but still stayed on the upper end of trade guesses.

Corn export inspections moved 52% above the prior week’s volume to reach 54.8 million bushels. That was higher than all trade estimates, which ranged between 35.4 million and 45.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are now 84% above last year’s pace, with 737.6 million bushels.

Corn export inspections were bound for more than 20 international destinations last week. Japan led the pack, with 20.4 million bushels. Mexico, Colombia, Taiwan and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections tilted 12% above the prior week’s tally, reaching 7.1 million bushels. The entirety of that grain is bound for China. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are easily doubling last year’s pace, with 86.1 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections retreated slightly week-over-week, sliding to 72.7 million bushels, Still, that was on the high end of trade estimates, which ranged between 36.7 million and 77.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still far outstripping last year’s pace, with 1.664 billion bushels.

China once again dominated U.S. soybean export inspections, accounting for more than half of last week’s total with another 44.8 million bushels. Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia and the Netherlands filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections nearly doubled week-over-week, moving to a total volume of 19.3 million bushels. That was also better than all trade estimates, which ranged between 7.3 million and 14.7 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still slightly behind last year’s pace, however, with a total of 591.5 million bushels since June 1.

Japan was the No. 1 destination for U.S. wheat export inspections, with 4.2 million bushels. Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights from USDA’s latest grain export inspection report.

About the Author

Ben Potter

Senior editor, Farm Futures

Senior Editor Ben Potter brings two decades of professional agricultural communications and journalism experience to Farm Futures. He began working in the industry in the highly specific world of southern row crop production. Since that time, he has expanded his knowledge to cover a broad range of topics relevant to agriculture, including agronomy, machinery, technology, business, marketing, politics and weather. He has won several writing awards from the American Agricultural Editors Association, most recently on two features about drones and farmers who operate distilleries as a side business. Ben is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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