-China Sept soybean imports record high
-USDA reports routine corn sale – no soybean sales
-France lowers crop estimates
Due to Monday’s Columbus Day holiday, this week’s regular USDA/EIA reports will be delayed one day. According, Export
Inspections and Crop Progress will be out today, EIA ethanol data on Thursday and Export Sales on Friday. NOPA’s monthly
soybean crush report will be out on Thursday.
 Preliminary trade data showed China imported 9.79 MMT of soybeans in September, a new record for the month, ticking up from 9.60 MMT in August and easily surpassing last year’s previous Sept record of 8.20 MMT. 2020 calendar year to date imports are 74.5 MMT vs 64.6 MMT last year. This month’s data completes the 2019/20 Oct-Sep marketing year, with total imports at 98.5 MMT vs 82.6 MMT last year. Total vegoil imports in September were 921k tonnes vs 976k in August and 840k tonnes last year.
ï‚· USDA reported 110k tonnes of corn sold to Mexico for 2020/21 delivery this morning. With ideas China has been in for more U.S. soybeans since the end of their Golden Week holiday late last week, it may be disappointing to some there were no soybean sales announcements this morning. They will likely come, though.
ï‚· Ideas on U.S. corn harvest this afternoon are 33-35% vs 25% last week, with soybean harvest expected in the 55-60% range vs 38% last week.
 France widely lowered their estimates of this year’s grain crops in this month’s update with the currently being harvested corn crop lowered to 13.5 MMT from 14.1 MMT previously, but still modestly better than last year’s 12.8 MMT, while the soft wheat crop was lowered to 29.2 MMT from 29.5 MMT previously and down sharply from last year’s massive 39.6 MMT. The barley crop was lowered to 10.5 MMT from 11.0 MMT previously (13.7 MMT last year), while rapeseed production was left unchanged 3.27 MMT, but is down slightly from last year’s 3.49 MMT.
ï‚· As one goes, they all go. APK-Inform is the latest to further cut Ukraine crop ideas, with the corn crop now estimated at 34.8
MMT vs 35.1 MMT last month and exports at 28.5 MMT, which was unchanged from last month. They lowered their wheat crop estimate to 25.1 MMT from 25.5 MMT previously, with exports also left unchanged for now at 17.5 MMT, as well. Over the weekend, Ukraine’s grain traders union UGA put the corn crop at 32.5 MMT and wheat at 25.3 MMT, with corn exports estimated at 27.2 MMT. Last year’s corn exports were 29.2 MMT, with wheat at 21.0 MMT.
 Indonesian palm oil/product exports in August fell to 2.68 MMT from 3.13 MMT in July and 2.89 MMT last year August according to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association. They put end August palm oil stocks at 4.46 MMT, up solidly from 3.62 MMT in July and well above year ago stocks of 3.8 MMT. Indonesian palm oil production in August was quite strong at 4.8 MMT, up from 4.2 MMT in July and last year’s 4.3 MMT.
Weather
Rains of .20-.60†fell across around 40% of the region north of Parana yesterday, with rest of Brazilian growing regions dry, as was Argentina. Brazil is expected to see hit and miss rains throughout the week ahead, resulting in totals of .40-1â€+ from Parana north with 65-70% coverage. The 6-10 day sees the tropical rains to continue in areas from Parana north with additional totals in the .35-1†range, with areas of 1â€+ occurring as well and coverage around 80%. The Argentine growing regions look to see rains of .30-.80†fall in Corrientes this week, with dry weather in the rest of their growing regions. The 6-10 day period finally shows widespread rains of .75-1.5â€+ with coverage of around 85-90%.