Weekly Grain Movement – Grains struggle to improve week over weekWeekly Grain Movement – Grains struggle to improve week over week

The bar wasn’t set exceptionally high, but for the week ending Dec. 7, only corn saw volume increase from the week prior.

Corn export inspections hit 25.9 million bushels, which was higher than a week ago (23.8 million bushels), and near the middle of the average trade guess of 21 million to 31 million bushels. Export inspections from a year ago were moderately higher, at 34.3 million bushels, and the weekly rate now needed to meet USDA’s forecasts has risen to 40.7 million bushels. Cumulative volume for the 2017/18 marketing year has reached 336 million bushels, versus 576 million a year ago.

Mexico was the No. 1 destination for corn export inspections, with 9.8 million bushels. Japan followed closely behind, at 8.6 million bushels. Other top destinations included Colombia (3.3 million bushels), El Salvador (1.3 million bushels) and Costa Rica (1.2 million bushels).

Soybean export inspections reached 45.2 million bushels, within the average trade guess of 40 million to 58 million bushels, but well behind the prior week’s total volume of 66.2 million bushels. The weekly rate needed to meet USDA’s forecast slipped to 35.9 million bushels, but cumulative volume for the 2017/18 marketing year, with 885 million bushels, lags behind 2016/17’s pace of 1.027 billion bushels.

China led the way with more than half of the total volume, with 28.0 million bushels. Other top destinations included Taiwan (4.0 million bushels), the Netherlands (2.6 million bushels), Egypt (2.4 million bushels) and Bangladesh (1.9 million bushels).

Wheat export inspections hit 11.6 million bushels. That was on the low end of the average trade guess of 11 million to 18 million bushels, and moderately lower than volume from a week prior (15.1 million bushels). The weekly rate needed to reach USDA’s forecast is now 20.8 million bushels, and total volume for 2017/18 lags behind a year ago, with 480 million bushels versus 518 million bushels. 

Wheat export inspection volume was distributed among the Philippines (2.5 million bushels), Guatemala (1.8 million bushels), Nigeria (1.5 million bushels), South Korea (1.5 million bushels), Mexico (1.4 million bushels) and others.