September corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 4.25 cents/bushel to $8.26/bushel Thursday morning after the US Department of Agriculture's weekly export report showed a 14,342 mt, or 11.7%, drop in current marketing year corn net export sales to a month-low of 108,440 mt for the reporting week ended August 16.
Current marketing year weekly corn net export sales were on a three-week decline to the lowest level since the reporting week ended July 19, when numerous cancellations resulted in a weekly corn net export sales figure of minus 9,113 mt.
The current marketing year for US corn ends August 31, while the next marketing year begins September 1 and lasts through August 31, 2013.
The top countries to which the US sold current marketing year corn to were Japan at 120,098 mt, China at 49,602 mt, Venezuela at 35,500 mt, Taiwan at 32,508 mt and Mexico at 19,778 mt.
There were current marketing year corn net export sale cancellations of 5,931 mt from El Salvador, 4,099 mt from the French West Indies, 3,339 mt from Honduras, 200 mt from South Korea and 171,395 mt from unknown destinations.
Next marketing year weekly corn net export sales, however, rose 86,376 mt, or 66.1%, to 216,978 mt in the latest reported week.
The top countries to which the US sold next marketing year corn were Mexico at 131,227 mt, Japan at 50,560 mt, Honduras at 4,847 mt and Guatemala at 1,000 mt.
Next marketing year corn net export sales cancellations came only from South Korea at 56,000 mt.
After reaching a month-high the previous week, weekly corn physical exports dipped 31,608 mt, or 5%, to 601,308 mt.
The top weekly physical export destinations were Japan at 260,856 mt, China at 108,602 mt, Mexico at 93,435 mt, South Korea at 58,028 mt and Venezuela at 25,500 mt.
Net sales are considered a more appropriate indicator for the strength of the corn export market.
The difference between weekly corn net export sales and weekly corn exports is timing, with corn first bought -- the weekly net export sales figure -- and then physically exported, the weekly physical export figure.