USDA’s latest round of export sales data, out Friday morning and covering the week through August 29, held another mixed bag of numbers for traders to digest. Corn sales saw net old crop sales reductions, but total sales were still better than the entire range of analyst estimates. Soybean sales were also relatively strong, while wheat sales slumped to the lower end of trade guesses.
Corn exports saw a marketing-year low of old crop sales, but an influx of new crop sales lifted total sales to 64.9 million bushels. That was better than the entire range of trade guesses, which came in between 23.6 million and 59.1 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the 2023/24 marketing year remain noticeably above last year’s pace after reaching 2.126 billion bushels.
Corn export shipments eased 7% below the prior four-week average, with 41.8 million bushels. Mexico, Japan, Colombia, Spain and Saudi Arabia were the top five destinations.
Sorghum export sales were noticeably above the prior four-week average after reaching 2.4 million bushels last week. The lone destination was China. Cumulative sales for the 2023/24 marketing year are still more than doubling last year’s pace after reaching 232.8 million bushels.
Old crop soybean sales slumped to a marketing-year low, but new crop sales lifted last week’s volume to 52.6 million bushels. That was near the middle of trade estimates, which ranged between 22.0 million and 80.8 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the 2023/24 marketing year are still tracking moderately lower than last year’s pace, with 1.633 billion bushels.
Soybean export shipments faded 9% lower week-over-week but were still 18% better than the prior four-week average after reaching 18.0 million bushels. China, Mexico, Indonesia, Egypt and Costa Rica were the top five destinations.
Wheat export sales were relatively disappointing after only reaching 12.1 million bushels last week, which was 17% below the prior four-week average. That was also on the very low end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 11.0 million and 22.0 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the 2024/25 marketing year are trending moderately above last year’s pace so far, with 205.8 million bushels.
Wheat export shipments climbed to a marketing-year high of 23.4 million bushels, which was 25% better than the prior four-week average. The Philippines, Mexico, Vietnam, South Korea and Guatemala were the top five destinations.
