USDA Reports High Corn Shipments Continue

OMAHA (DTN) — USDA’s Weekly Export Sales and Shipments report released Thursday listed net sales of 47.9 million bushels (mb) of corn, 13.7 mb of soybeans, and 9.0 mb of wheat, old and new crop combined for all three.

For the week ended May 16, 2024, USDA reported an increase of 35.9 mb (911,200 mt) of corn export sales in 2023-24 and an increase of 12.0 mb (305,000 mt) for 2024-25. Last week’s export shipments of 57.0 mb were well above the 40.1 mb needed each week to achieve USDA’s export estimate of 2.150 bb in 2023-24. Corn sales commitments now total 1.940 billion bushels (bb) in 2023-24 and are up 30% from a year ago. That is slightly above USDA’s estimated pace at a time when USDA’s estimate of U.S. ending corn stocks is the highest in five years.   

For the week ended May 16, USDA reported an increase of 10.3 mb (279,400 mt) of soybean export sales in 2023-24 and an increase of 2.4 mb (65,500 mt) for 2024-25. Last week’s export shipments of 9.5 mb were below the 12.4 mb needed each week to achieve USDA’s export estimate of 1.700 bb in 2023-24. Soybean sales commitments now total 1.576 bb in 2023-24 and are down 16% from a year ago. That is slightly below USDA’s estimated pace at a time when USDA’s estimate of U.S. ending soybean stocks is the highest in four years.   

For the week ended May 16, USDA reported an increase of 0.7 mb (17,900 mt) of wheat export sales for 2023-24 and an increase of 8.3 mb (224,900 mt) for 2024-25. Last week’s export shipments of 7.2 mb were well below the 16.2 mb needed each week to achieve USDA’s export estimate of 720 mb in 2023-24. Wheat export shipments now total 651 mb in 2023-24 and are up 2% from a year ago. That is above USDA’s estimated pace at a time when USDA’s estimate of U.S. ending wheat stocks is the second lowest in 10 years.