The amount of US corn inspected for export in the week ended October 11 totaled 996,643 mt, triple from 330,456 mt inspected in the year-ago week, data from the Department of Agriculture showed Monday.
The most recent reporting period's total was 28% lower than 1.385 million mt of corn inspected in the previous week, according to the USDA's weekly Federal Grain Inspection Service report.
The largest share of US grain exports last week were soybeans, at 43.6% of the total grains inspected for export. Corn was second at 37.5%, followed by wheat at 17%, according to the data.
In the first 41 days of the 2018-2019 marketing year, the amount of US corn inspected for export totaled 6.836 million mt, 74.7% higher than the same period in the previous marketing year and 10.9% of the USDA's just updated projection of 62.868 million mt for the marketing year that will end August 31, 2019.
US export shipments were below the weekly pace needed to reach the USDA's estimate for exports in the ongoing marketing year, according to the data.
The data showed the total amount of US corn that was inspected leaving the US Gulf Coast at 720,679 mt: 656,449 mt of yellow corn and 64,230 mt of white corn. The top destinations were Mexico with 181,642 mt of yellow corn and 64,230 mt of white corn, Colombia with 126,343 mt of yellow corn, Japan with 125,780 mt of yellow corn, and Egypt with 111,218 mt of yellow corn.
The amount of US corn inspected leaving the US Pacific Coast was 133,922 mt of yellow corn. The destination was South Korea.
US corn that was inspected leaving the Interior region totaled 112,830 mt of yellow corn. The top destinations were Mexico with 99,681 mt of yellow corn and Taiwan with 9,058 mt of yellow corn.
US corn inspected for exports is corn that has been sold and is inspected during loading at export locations for shipment overseas. Traders consider the pace needed to meet the USDA projection as an indicator of demand.
Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production in the US and is the main competitor for dried distillers grains.
