China's corn imports reached 4.5 million tons in 2014/15
Since the 2014/15 year, China has cumulatively imported 3.63 million tons of corn, a year-on-year increase of 19.57%. About 2 million tons of Ukrainian corn began arriving at ports in April, and 6 shipments of US corn also arrived at ports from June to August. Therefore, China faced relatively high pressure from corn imports in June-August, and in July it will still maintain a level of about 800,000 tons, with the full-year import volume expected to be 4.5 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 37%.
Customs data show that in June China exported 360 tons of corn, after exporting 578 tons of corn the previous month. The main export destination was North Korea. Since the 2014/15 year to date, cumulative corn exports have reached 10,700 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 11%. In recent years, China's corn export volume has shown a declining trend. In the 2013/14 year, China exported 22,400 tons of corn, a year-on-year decline of 72%.
It is expected that in the 2014/15 year China will import 9 million tons of sorghum, 6 million tons of feed barley and 4 million tons of DDGS, totaling more than 16 million tons of corn substitutes, with an annual increase in substitutes of more than 8.2 million tons; taking into comprehensive consideration factors such as poor overall demand in the feed industry and a sharp increase in imported substitutes, it is expected that corn feed consumption this year will be 106 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 7 million tons.
In the 2014/15 year to date, cumulative sorghum imports have reached 7.42 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 199%. Customs data show that in June 2015 China imported 1.087 million tons of sorghum, compared with 1.004 million tons the previous month and 581,700 tons in the same period last year. Of this, 626,700 tons came from the United States, with the remainder mainly from Australia. Among the main customs offices for imports, Nanjing, Qingdao, Guangzhou and Huangpu customs imported 124,500 tons, 231,300 tons, 246,700 tons and 215,300 tons respectively.
Summary data on China's wheat imports show that from January to May 2015 China imported a total of 1,394,600 tons of wheat, a decrease of 1,160,500 tons from 2,555,100 tons in the same period last year, a decline of 45.42%. Among this, cumulative imports from Australia were 638,600 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 49.01%; imports from Canada were 519,500 tons, a year-on-year increase of 66.66%; imports from the United States were 186,900 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 74.77%; imports from Kazakhstan were 4.46 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 77.17%.
Import and export data released by the General Administration of Customs of China show that in June China did not export wheat. Summary data show that from January to June 2015 China exported a total of 3,000 tons of wheat, all to the United States, with cumulative export value of 791,500 US dollars, an increase of 3,000 tons and 791,500 US dollars compared with the same period last year.