US corn inspected for export drops 28.4% on week, 69.3% from year ago: USDA

Houston — US corn inspected for export in the week ended January 16 totaled 345,859 mt, a 28.4% drop from the prior week, and a 69.3% drop from the same week a year ago, the Department of Agriculture said Tuesday in its weekly Federal Grain Inspection Service report.

Since the 2019-20 marketing year started September 1, US corn inspected for export in the week ended January 16 totaled 9.431 million mt, 54.2% below the same period the previous marketing year and 19.6% of the USDA's last projection of 45.087 million mt for the 2019-20 marketing year.

US export shipments were below the average weekly pace needed to reach the USDA estimate for exports in the 2019-20 marketing year.

US corn inspected for departure from the US Gulf Coast totaled 212,669 mt. Of that, 199,554 mt was yellow corn and 13,115 mt was white corn.

The top destinations were Colombia with 107,370 mt of yellow corn and 13,115 mt of white corn; Japan, with 40,881 mt of yellow corn; and Mexico, with 35,683 mt of yellow corn.

US corn inspected for departure from the US Pacific Coast totaled 563 mt of white corn with the destination of South Korea.

Inspections of corn leaving the Interior region totaled 132,627 mt of yellow corn. The top destinations were Mexico, with 117,594 mt; Taiwan with 11,408 mt; and Hong Kong, with 1,690 mt.

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.

The largest share of US grain exports inspected last week was soybeans, at 59.9%. Wheat was second at 21.7%, followed by corn at 17.2%.

Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production in the US and the main competitor for dried distiller grains in the feed ration.

US corn inspected for export (mt):

Source: USDA