Matt Pierce shares this article on projections for Chinese imports of US corn:
CHICAGO, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Following its first large
purchase of U.S. corn in more than four years in 2010, China
may need to import as much as 9 million tonnes of corn this
year, an official with the U.S. Grains Council said on
Thursday.
“Estimates given to us were that China is short 10-15
million tonnes (394 million to 591 million bushels) in stocks
and will need to purchase corn this year,” USGC chairman Terry
Vinduska said in a statement.
“We learned the government normally keeps stocks at 30
percent but they are currently a little over 5 percent, which
may lead to imports of 3-9 million tons (118-354 million
bushels),” Vinduska said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected that China
will import 1 million tonnes of corn in the 2010/11 marketing
year ending Aug. 31, but many private forecasts are
considerably higher.
China’s 2009 corn harvest was reduced by a drought, and the
country’s demand for animal feed has been booming.
While in China last week, officials from the Grains Council
and the National Corn Growers Association met with analysts and
industry experts who said corn demand in China remains strong
because of an economy growing at 8 to 10 percent annually.
The group also discussed China’s anti-dumping investigation
against imports of U.S. distiller’s dried grains (DDGS).
“We found that importers would like to more than double the
3 million tons of U.S. DDGs (that) China imported last year,
eventually reaching 10 million tons in annual imports,”
Vinduska said.
“However,” he said, “they recognize the tremendous growth
shown in 2010 may need to slow down to allow internal markets
to adjust. One way to slow the growth was to launch the
anti-dumping case.”
