US corn stocks swell as world recovers from tighter supplies

FE Team | Published: January 13, 2024 21:50:10

CHICAGO, Jan 13 (Reuters): US corn inventories last month swelled to their largest level since 2018, the US Department of Agriculture said on Friday, as global supplies recover from multi-year lows.
World grain supplies are becoming more comfortable after tightening due to the war in Ukraine, a major corn and wheat producer, and unfavorable crop weather.
A record US corn harvest last year and lackluster US export sales have contributed to growing stockpiles, and pushed corn futures prices to three-year lows in a blow to farmers.
"Stocks are building in the U.S. and the world instead of shrinking," said Don Roose, president of brokerage US Commodities in Iowa.
US corn stocks of 12.169 billion bushels on Dec. 1 were up 12.5 per cent from a year earlier, when stocks set a nine-year low for that date, USDA data show. They exceeded analysts' estimates for 12.05 billion bushels.
Globally, the amount of corn left at the end of the marketing year is projected to hit a six-year high in 2023/24, after setting a two-year low the previous year and six-year low in 2020/2021, according to the USDA.
"There's plenty of corn out there," said Len Steiner, principal of food consultancy Steiner Consulting Group.
For wheat, U.S. stocks increased to 1.410 billion bushels as of Dec. 1, the largest since 2020 and above analysts' expectations for 1.387 billion bushels. A year earlier, stocks were about 7 per cent smaller and hit the lowest level for Dec. 1 since 2007, according to the USDA.
The USDA raised its estimate for global wheat ending stocks from December, though they remain at an eight-year low. The government also projected all U.S. winter wheat seedings for the 2024 harvest will fall 6 per cent to 34.425 million acres.
Bigger-than-expected crop inventories added pressure on grain prices, which extended recent declines. Corn futures hit their lowest level since December 2020 at the Chicago Board of Trade and soybean futures Sv1set their lowest since November 2021 after the USDA raised yield numbers for the now harvested US crop.
The USDA said US soybean stocks on Dec. 1 were 3 billion bushels, down from 3.021 billion a year earlier and the lowest since 2020. Analysts had expected 2.975 billion bushels.