Weekly Grain Movement – Corn rebounds, wheat struggles

UDSA’s latest round of grain export inspection report, out Monday morning and covering the week through February 25, held mostly positive data for traders to digest. Corn volume saw marked improvement and made it to the upper end of trade estimates. Soybeans also notched week-over-week gains and exceeded analyst expectations. Wheat volume continues to disappoint, however, with another round of weekly declines while sliding below the entire range of trade guesses.

Corn export inspections improved to 64.4 million bushels, versus the prior week’s tally of 48.5 million bushels. That was also on the high end of trade guesses, which ranged between 45.3 million and 68.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year remain substantially above last year’s pace, crossing the 1-billion-bushel mark to reach 1.012 billion bushels.

Japan (13.8 million) edged out China (13.6 million) as the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week. Mexico, South Korea and Colombia rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections tipped slightly lower week-over-week, to 4.8 million bushels. China accounted for more than half of the total, with Afghanistan and Kenya picking up the remainder. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still more than double last year’s pace, with 141.1 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections saw week-over-week gains of around 9.5%, climbing to 32.3 million bushels and surpassing all trade estimates, which ranged between 14.7 million and 29.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still significantly above last year’s pace, with 1.906 billion bushels.

China accounted for nearly 40% of all soybean export inspections last week, with 21.3 million bushels. Israel, Taiwan, Germany and Egypt filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections fell again, moving to a lackluster 10.0 million bushels. That was also below the entire range of trade guesses, which were between 11.0 million and 18.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year moved further below last year’s pace after reaching 662.8 million bushels.

Indonesia returned as the top destination for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 2.7 million bushels. Mexico, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan rounded out the top five.

FramProgress

Tags: corn, soybeans, crops, wheat, farm market commentary