USDA’s latest round of grain export data, out Thursday morning and covering the week through July 15, didn’t hold a lot of bullish numbers for traders to digest. Corn fared the worst, with a net reduction in sales last week after some cancellations from China. Wheat sales fared much better, staying near the middle of trade guesses, and soybeans failed to impress but at least stayed within the range of analyst estimates.

Corn exports faced old-crop net reductions of 3.5 million bushels and new crop net sales of 1.9 million bushels, which left a negative balance of 1.6 million bushels last week. Analysts were expecting to see totals anywhere between zero and 27.6 million bushels. Sales may have been disappointing this past week, but cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still trending more than 900 million bushels above last year’s pace, at 2.392 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments dropped 22% below the prior four-week average, to 39.5 million bushels. China accounted for more than half of that total, with 20.7 million bushels. Mexico, Japan, Venezuela and Nicaragua rounded out the top five.

Sorghum also faced a net reduction in sales last week, backtracking 2.1 million bushels after cancellations to China more than offset sales to Mexico and Japan. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are trending 82% ahead of last year’s pace, with 254.6 million bushels.

Soybean exports added 2.3 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 6.5 million bushels in new crop sales, for a total of 8.8 million bushels. That was toward the lower end of trade guesses, which came in a fairly wide range from 1.8 million to 23.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year remain more than 700 million bushels ahead of last year’s pace, climbing to 2.163 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments slid 17% lower week-over-week and 19% below the prior four-week average, to 6.0 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 2.2 million bushels. Japan, Indonesia, Colombia and Vietnam filled out the top five.

Wheat exports reached 17.4 million bushels last week – a 44% improvement versus the prior four-week average. That was slightly on the higher end of trade estimates, which ranged between 12.9 million and 22.0 million bushels. All-wheat exports for the 2021/22 marketing year are still trending moderately behind last year’s pace, with 87.6 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments improved 29% week-over-week to 17.3 million bushels. The Philippines topped all destinations, with 4.4 million bushels. Mexico, China, Nigeria and Ecuador rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights and insights from the latest USDA report, covering July 9 through July 15.