Houston — US net export sales of corn totaled 1.888 million mt in the week ended January 11, up from 437,745 mt in the previous week, Department of Agriculture data showed Friday. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Market expectations were for USDA weekly export sales to be between 5000,000 mt and 800,000 mt, a market participant said. Weekly export sales were expected to keep showing improvement as they were coming out from the holiday period, sources added. The rise in export sales reflects strong US corn competitiveness against Brazil and Ukraine, where corn basis values are rising. Since the current marketing year began on September 1, total commitments -- cumulative exports plus outstanding sales -- totaled 28.997 million mt, down 23% year on year and 11.3% above the five-year average. The current total is already 59.3% of the USDA's 48.898 million mt projection for the current marketing year. Outstanding export sales of US corn -- product sold but not yet shipped -- for the current marketing year through the most recent week totaled 16.790 million mt, 15% below the same period last year and 20.4% above the average for the past five years, the USDA said. The top corn buyers in the most recent week were Japan with 415,590 mt, Peru with 157,000 mt and Mexico with 133,987 mt. The top buyers in the current marketing year are Mexico at 9.848 million mt, Japan at 4.887 million mt, Colombia at 2.108 million mt and Peru at 1.764 million mt, the data show. Net sales are considered a more appropriate indicator of the strength of the corn market than physical exports because they reflect new sales. Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production in the US and is the main competitor for dried distillers grains. --Sergio Alvarado, sergio.alvarado@spglobal.com--Edited by Derek Sands, derek.sands@spglobal.com
US corn commitments - cumulative exports plus outstanding sales - were about 29 million tonnes since the beginning of the marketing year on 1 September, a decline of 23% year-on-year, but still 11.3% above on the five-year average. Mexico, Japan and Department of Agriculture are the biggest importers of US corn for the marketing year.