Corn prices increased slightly by 2 cents on Tuesday morning following a decline of 12 to 13.25 cents in Monday’s futures. Preliminary open interest fell by 23,389 contracts, with May dropping 25,724 contracts and December down 10,909. The CmdtyView national average cash corn price decreased by 13 cents to $4.11 ½.
In the week of March 12, the Export Inspections report indicated that 1.658 million metric tons (MMT) of corn were shipped, which is 1.98% lower than the prior week but 8.95% higher than the same week last year. The largest export destination was Mexico at 446,121 MT, followed by Japan with 281,957 MT and Colombia at 150,849 MT. The marketing year’s total corn shipments since September 1 stand at 42.869 MMT, representing a 39.16% increase year-over-year.
Ukraine’s economic ministry projects the planting of 4.42 million hectares (10.92 million acres) of corn this spring, contributing to an estimated total grain acreage of 6 million hectares (14.83 million acres), an increase of 240,000 hectares (593,000 acres) from last year.
