August 24, 2015
China's corn imports continues good showing in July
A positive trend continues to persist for China's corn imports as an increase was reported for a fourth month, reaching the highest in at least 10 years.
Backed by lower US prices, corn shipments to the Chinese mainland rose to 1.1 million tonnes in July from the 872,928 tonnes volume seen in June, based on data by the General Administration of Customs.
Previously, imports in July 2014 were only 86,470 tonnes, according to Bloomberg.
Wayne Gordon, an analyst at UBS Group AG, said that it is currently cheaper to "import corn than buying it from domestic sources".
"The domestic price now is about US$408.90 a tonne compared with an imported price of about US$251.67 a tonne," Gordon added. However, he believes that China is unlikely to import another one milliom tonnes of corn soon, attributing to the volatility of the country's corn imports.
US corn futures recently slid 9.7% in July as weather conditions in the country improved and following a 20% increase in June. In addition, the USDA also raised its estimate for domestic output due to higher-than-expected yields.