Today (Sept 1), the market for grains in China is shown as follows:

Corn:

Corn prices in China mainly stay stable with partial declines today. And the average price is 2,233 CNY/tonne nationwide, down by 6 CNY/tonne from yesterday. The price among deep-processing enterprises in Shandong prevails at 2,310-2,426 CNY/tonne, partly down by 10-20 CNY/tonne from yesterday. At Jinzhou port, Liaoning, the new corn with volume weight of 690 g/L (choicest and packed in cases) is priced at 2,180 CNY/tonne, unchanged with yesterday. At Guangdong port, Grade-II old corn is offered at 2,320-2,330 CNY/tonne, a slight decrease of 10 CNY/tonne from yesterday.

China increases the purchase of imported corn. Private exporters reported a sale of 596,000 tonnes of corn to China, according to USDA on Monday. Meanwhile, imported corn has been arriving at ports successively in recent days, and the early-ripening new corn has entered market in North China. Hence, it will likely increase corn supply after September. But market buyers are not active in purchasing. With the pressure in fundamentals emerging, corn market is still likely to go down from high levels. Corn price further drops by 10-20 CNY/tonne today. Buyers can keep eyes on the pace of ex-warehouse of corn in Northern area.

Sorghum:

Domestic sorghum prices are stable today, of which dried sorghum prices prevail at around 2,900-3,000 CNY/tonne. Domestic sorghum supplies are reducing and margins are growing, so that farmers and traders both tend to prop up prices. However, Chinese importers have bought relatively huge amount of sorghum, which will be at relatively low prices. Moreover, it become more difficult to stock up sorghum under warmer weather conditions, coupled with limited demand from distilleries, so that domestic sorghum market is weighed down. Overall, domestic sorghum prices are predicted to stay stale with a strengthening trend.

Imported sorghum prices are stable in China today with the average price at 2,255 CNY/tonne. Market participants are concerned that escalating U.S.-China tensions could affect future imports of sorghum. Moreover, the cost of importing sorghum is also strengthening due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, imported sorghum stocks at Guangdong ports still total 306,000 tonnes as of Aug 28. And an expected rise in sorghum arrivals will probably weigh down US sorghum prices in China. Participants can focus on the development of US-China relations.

Barley:

Imported barley prices are stable with a partial decline today with the average at 1,998 CNY/tonne. As of Aug 28th, imported barley stocks totaled 253,000 tonnes at Guangdong ports. There will be vessels arriving gradually in coming months, while downstream buyers have weak demand now, which will be negative to the market. Overall, imported barley prices are predicted to stay stable with a weakening trend in China.

Earlier this year, China announced anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties totalling 80.5% on Australian barley imports from May 19 for five years. And recently, Australia has appealed to China’s Ministry of Commerce to conduct a formal review on barley tariffs. Should the decision come at the tail-end of the 90-day window, it would be delivered just as Australian farmers harvest a barley crop that’s forecast to hit a four-year high of more than 10 mln tonnes, according to a media report. The report also said Australia will look to markets such as Saudi Arabia, though traders said that farmers would need to accept a haircut of A$50 ($36.12) per tonne compared to what Chinese buyers paid.

(USD $1=CNY ¥6.85)