Weekly corn export sales for the week ending February 28 were reported today at 25.5 million bushels of old crop corn. This was at the low end of pre-report estimates that ranged from 23.6 to 37.4 million bushels. This is following a normal yearly decline as we reach the halfway point for the 2007/08 marketing year. Note the chart in the Weekly Grain Fundamentals article in this e-Snapshot. Also reported were sales of new crop corn of 2.5 million bushels, which is now puts new crop corn sales ahead of last years pace as well as the 3-year average pace. Shipments of corn for the week picked up the pace from last week as 52.4 million bushels left the country. This is above the 5 and 10-week average and well above the 45 million bushels needed on a weekly basis to reach USDA projections. Overall, the trade should view this report as bullish for corn.
Soybean sales slipped to only 7.4 million bushels reported for the week. This is the lowest sales level since the first week of 2008. Pre-report estimates were expecting soybean sales in a range of 11.0 to 18.4 million bushels. While lower than trade was expecting, this is well above the 2.3 million bushels needed on a weekly basis to achieve the 1.005 billion bushel USDA estimate. Soybean shipments for the week totaled 24.5 million bushels; also well above the 11.7 million needed for the week to reach USDA projections. Therefore, trade should view this weeks report as bullish for soybeans.
Old crop wheat sales for the week totaled 15.9 million bushels, considerably more than the 3.0 million bushels needed to make the USDA projection of 1.2 billion bushels. Pre-report estimates for wheat sales ranged from 20.2 to 34.9 million bushels. The Hard Red Winter Wheat made up the lion's share of this week's total wheat sales, while the Hard Red Spring wheat showed its net sales as negative indicating some cancellations in that category. Shipment of wheat for the week totaled 17.6 million bushels. This is less than what is needed on a weekly basis to reach USDA projections and will need to be monitored in the coming weeks to see if this trend continues to unfold. Trade will view this weeks report as more neutral for the wheat trade.
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