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China’s corn buying spree has slowed

Recent Chinese purchases of U.S. corn have softened the blow of less ethanol demand related to COVID-19.

Naomi Blohm with Total Farm Marketing says China’s buying spree started in late March and has helped keep USDA export projections on target.

“Then we’ll see if China does any buying of DDG’s or ethanol in the coming weeks. This winter Sonny Perdue said he thought China would do the bulk of their buying in late spring, so here we are. Let’s see if they show up.”

But she tells Brownfield trade activity has slowed the last two weeks as tensions grow between the U.S. and China.

“It seems like the marketplace is not quite ready to say prices should sell off, they’re not anxious or excited to see prices rally. So it’s almost like traders are sitting on the sidelines to figure out how the U.S. Chinese trade relations are going to go.”

In its latest supply and demand report, the USDA modestly raised old crop corn ending stocks with bigger exports and feed mostly canceling out reduced outlooks for food and ethanol use.