IARN — The latest U.S. Weekly Export Sales Report showed strength in the soybean complex.
That’s according to Greg McBride, commodities broker with Allendale. McBride says analysts were expecting strong soybean export numbers for the week ending June 4th. They were correct.
“We did end up with a combined total of about 2.2 million tons of beans sold,” McBride said. “That was above the average guess. That looks good for us. Corn, meanwhile, came in inside the weekly range, but at the lower end of it. A little bit of a neutral tilt to that. Meal was inside the range as well and bean oil was below the range. Nothing really too extraordinary to get excited about other than the bean sales.”
And, for the second straight week China showed up in the reports as the country decided to come in and make purchases. This once again comes as China had recently announced they were going to hold off on buying U.S. grain. McBride expects China buying to continue moving forward.
“What we are hearing is that they are going to continue to buy,” he said. “They have no reason not to. If you look at soybean prices as we move forward here, the U.S. is the cheapest game in town for any delivery period from now until the end of the year. We should be seeing that demand from them. It’s a purely business oriented decision that they have to make. It’s cheap here, so buy it from us.”
McBride’s advice for Iowa producers is to keep an eye on upcoming weather forecasts. He says the 6-to-10 day forecast shows no rain west of the Mississippi, which could put a little bit of stress on crops as temperatures are expected to rise through the weekend and next week.
The next U.S. Export Sales Report will be released on Thursday, June 18th.
McBride’s full comments can be heard by visiting the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
