US DATA: Corn inspections for export down 12% on week, up 108% on year

Houston — US corn inspected for exports in the week ended April 15 totaled 1.524 million mt, down 12% from 1.728 million mt in the prior week, but up 108% from the year-ago week, the Department of Agriculture said April 19.

The USDA made an adjustment for last-week corn shipments, which were at 1.584 million mt in its April 12 report, and adjusted to 1.728 in this last report.

Since the 2020-21 marketing year started on Sept. 1, the volume of US corn inspected for exports has totaled 39.246 million mt, 84% above the same period in the previous marketing year, the USDA said in its weekly Federal Grain Inspection Service report.

The total volume of US corn inspected for exports in the current marketing year has reached 58% of the USDA's latest projection of US corn export sales at 67.949 million mt.

US export shipments were above the average weekly pace needed to reach the USDA estimate of exports in the 2020-21 marketing year, market participants said.

Outstanding export sales of US corn -- product sold, but not yet shipped -- for the current marketing year totaled 29.024 million mt, 110% above the year-ago level, the USDA said in its latest weekly export sales report April 15. Of the total outstanding sales, 47%, 13.700 million mt were for China destinations, beside 3.391 million mt for unknown destinations, usually associated with China destinations.

The top destination of the US corn inspected for exports was China with a total of 560,165 mt -- 354,848 mt for departure from the US Gulf Coast and 205,317 mt leaving from the Pacific Northwest region.

Despite the strong US corn shipment program to China, the loads were below the average weekly pace needed to ship the 13.7 million mt of US corn already sold to China but not yet shipped.

The second top destination was Mexico with a total of 319,803 mt -- 146,525 mt for departure from the US Gulf Coast and 173,278 mt leaving from the Interior region.

The volume of US corn inspected for departure from the US Gulf Coast totaled 872,856 mt, with 864,056 mt of yellow corn and 8,800 mt of white corn. The top destinations were China with 354,848 mt; Mexico with 146,525 mt; Japan with 118,967 mt; and Taiwan with 73,487 mt, all of them for just yellow corn.

The amount of yellow corn inspected for departure from the US Pacific Coast totaled 443,595 mt, with 443,448 mt of yellow corn and 147 mt of white corn. The top destinations for yellow corn were China with 205,317 mt, South Korea with 132,402 mt, and Japan with 105,460 mt. For white corn, South Korea was the destination for 98 mt and the UK for 49 mt.

Inspections of corn leaving the Interior region totaled 183,292 mt, with 176,905 mt of yellow corn and 6,387 mt of white corn. The main destinations were Mexico with 166,891 mt of yellow corn and 6,387 mt of white corn and Taiwan with 8,643 mt of yellow corn.

The largest share of US grain exports inspected last week was corn at 58%. Wheat was second at 23% followed by Sorghum at 12%, and Soybeans at 7%.

US corn inspected for exports is corn that has been sold and inspected during loading at export locations for shipment overseas. Traders consider the pace needed to meet the USDA projection an indicator of demand.

Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production in the US and the main competitor for dried distiller grains in the feed ration as a source of energy.

US corn inspected for export (mt):

Source: USDA