US net export sales of corn for the current marketing year totaled 1.266 million mt in the week ended November 22, up 44.3% from the previous week, US Department of Agriculture data showed Thursday.
Market expectations for total weekly export sales were between 400,000 mt and 950,000 mt.
The top corn buyers in the most recent week were South Korea with 327,930 mt, Colombia with 267,795 mt, Japan with 197,493 and Peru with 156,981 mt.
In addition to these sales up to November 22, South Korea has been recently more active buying US corn, perhaps due to the Russia-Ukraine incidents and the bad weather at the Kerch strait between the Black Sea and Azov Sea, sources said.
Since the 2018-2019 marketing year began September 1, total commitments - cumulative exports plus outstanding sales - have risen to 25.570 million mt, up 16% year on year and 10.9% above the five-year average. That total was up to 41.1% of the USDA's 62.233 million mt projection for the 2018-2019 marketing year.
Outstanding export sales of US corn - product sold but not yet shipped - for the current marketing year through the most recent week totaled 11.342 million mt, 18% below the total at the same point last year and 19.7% below the five-year average, the USDA said.
The top buyers in the current marketing year have been Mexico at 8.193 million mt, Japan at 4.485 million mt, South Korea at 2.193 million mt and Colombia at 1.524 million mt, the data showed.
Since the beginning of the marketing year, 1.715 million mt of US corn has been committed for unknown destinations, USDA data showed.
Net sales are considered a more appropriate indicator of the strength of the corn market than physical exports, because they reflect new sales.
The outstanding export sales are considered an indicator of the strength of the New Orleans CIF barges corn market.
Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production in the US and is the main competitor for dried distillers grains.
