Corn Fades on Thursday

Front month corn futures ended the session with 4 to 5 3/4 cent losses. March printed another double digit range for the day of 14 cents/bu. New crop prices were also weaker on Thursday. 

The USDA’s Ag Attache from Beijing lowered their forecast for Chinese corn imports to 20 MMT flat. That is 6 MMT under the USDA official Jan estimate. Current Export Sales data from the USDA shows China holds 12.44 MMT of U.S. corn commitments (shipped + contracted) on the books for 21/22 export. As of January 27, 3.47 MMT of those commitments had been shipped. 

Export Sales data confirmed 1.175 MMT of corn was sold during the week that ended 1/27. That was at the high end of estimates. USDA reported corn exports were 1.166 MMT during the same week, which was down 19% from the prior week by 17% above the same week last year. That brough the accumulated shipment program to 19.566 MMT, or 2.3% below last year’s pace. Accumulated commitments trail 2020/21 by 20% with 45.123 MMT (1.776 bbu). 

Traders surveyed ahead of the monthly S&D estimates expect USDA to reduce domestic corn carryout by 41.8 mbu to 1.498 billion. Global corn stocks are estimated at 299.5 MMT on average, which would be down by 3.6 MMT vs. the January report. 

Mar 22 Corn  closed at $6.16 3/4, down 5 3/4 cents,

Nearby Cash  was $6.02 1/8, down 5 5/8 cents,

May 22 Corn  closed at $6.17 1/4, down 5 cents,

Dec 22 Corn  closed at $5.68 1/4, down 4 3/4 cents,

New Crop Cash  was $5.51 3/8, down 4 1/8 cents,