Corn port inventories continued to decline as of last Friday

As of last Friday, corn inventories at the four northern ports totaled 3.457 million tons, of which inventories at Beiliang, Dayaowan, Jinzhou and Bayuquan ports were 320,000 tons, 177,000 tons, 1.46 million tons and 1.5 million tons respectively, a decrease of 50,000 tons from the previous week.

Last week, the volume shipped south from the four northern ports was 360,000 tons, an increase of 180,000 tons from last week. It is estimated that in March the volume of bulk corn shipped south from northern ports was only about 1 million tons. Looking at data from previous years, the average monthly volume of bulk grain shipped south from northern ports was about 2 million tons, but since January this year the shipment volume data has clearly decreased. Temporary storage purchases progressed rapidly, and the price rise in Northeast China corn started earlier this year, causing more corn to remain in the Northeast production areas, with the volume shipped out clearly less than in previous years.

Before spring plowing, farmers sold grain in concentrated fashion, which will be the last wave of peak grain selling this year, and arrivals at northern ports were relatively large. However, the volume of Northeast temporary storage exceeded 72 million tons and is still continuing to grow. It is expected that by April grain sources in Northeast China will gradually run out, at which point the number of processing enterprises shutting down will increase, and the market will mainly wait for temporary storage corn auctions. Later, rising corn prices in production areas will continue to support corn prices at northern ports.

Data show that as of March 30, domestic trade corn inventories at Guangdong ports were 395,000 tons, and foreign trade inventories were 110,000 tons, totaling 505,000 tons, a decrease of 18,000 tons from the same period last week. At Guangdong Shenzhen port, the transaction price of high-quality Liaoning-Jilin corn with 14.5% moisture was 2520-2550 yuan/ton, down 10 yuan/ton from last week. The price of corn of poorer quality was 2450-2480 yuan/ton, basically flat with last week. For traders shipping corn from northern ports to the south, they theoretically break even or incur a slight loss.