By Kirk Maltais

Export sales of U.S. corn have exceeded the expectations of traders, although steep cuts were made to sales of the old crop.

Across both marketing years, sales of U.S. corn for the week ended July 29 totaled 898,400 metric tons. Most of these sales were made for 2021/22 corn, with Mexico and Japan being the leading buyers. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this week expected corn sales to top out at 700,000 tons.

For corn in the current marketing year, multiple countries cut their previously announced purchases this week. China reduced their purchases by 112,500 tons, sales to unknown destinations were reduced by 47,100 tons, sales to Nicaragua were reduced by 46,900 tons, sales to Costa Rica were reduced by 30,100 tons, and sales to Panama were reduced by 20,700 tons.

Most-active corn futures trading on the Chicago Board of Trade are up 0.5% to roughly $5.50 per bushel Thursday.

To see related data, search "U.S. Export Sales: Weekly Shipment Totals" in Dow Jones NewsPlus.

Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 05, 2021 09:23 ET (13:23 GMT)

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