China October corn imports decline amid strong domestic production

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China’s corn imports fell month on month in October to 1.303 million mt from 3.5 million mt in September, customs data showed.

October saw the lowest monthly corn imports in 2021. The bulk of imports were from the US with Ukraine only sending 42,278 mt in October.

Total corn imports from January-October were just over 27 million mt with the US selling over 19 million mt during the period and Ukraine selling about 6.3 million mt.

In the last two weeks, Chinese importers were heard to have booked around 500,000 mt of corn for December 2021-March 2022 shipments at $325-$330/mt CFR.

For the new marketing year Oct 2021- Sep 2022, Ukraine is said to have sold over 6 million mt of corn to China, market sources said.

China’s imports slow amid strong harvest

Corn imports slowed in October amid the ongoing harvest of corn in the country and a massive inflow of imports in 2021.

China’s corn output in 2021-22 is seen rising to 270.96 million mt from 260.67 million mt in 2020-21, according to China’s Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (Casde), published by the Chinese Agriculture Outlook Committee.

Seasonal harvest pressures will weigh on domestic corn prices until the first quarter of 2022, but further downside potential seems limited, Rabobank said in a report recently.

However, excessive rainfall left a large proportion of corn unsuitable for feed use in northern China and the quality spread is expected to widen, Rabobank said in the report.

China’s weekly corn prices have risen to 2,507 yuan as of Nov. 8 from 2,492 yuan in the previous week.

Source: Platts