-US planting zooming along
-USDA announces more new crop corn sales to China
-ADM to build soybean crush plant in ND
-South Korea passes on corn tender
-Brazil forecast remains mostly dry
-USDA reports tomorrow
The forecast for Brazilian safrinha corn areas remains mostly dry through the 15-day period, although decent rains for Parana remain in the forecast this week. USDA monthly WASDE and Crop Production reports will be out tomorrow at 11:00 AM CT. Our pre-report commentary/analysis can be found at https://portal.rjobrien.com/MarketInsights/Blog/Read/43806. A summary of the average trade estimate is on page 3.
 Yesterday’s Crop Progress update showed another very active week across the heart of the corn belt with corn planting nearing completion already in some states. Specifically, IA is 86% complete vs 65% avg, MN 85% vs 53% avg, IL 74% vs 61% avg and NE 71% vs 57% avg. Nationwide, the corn crop is 67% planted vs 46% last week, 65% last year and 52% average. For soybeans, IA is now 67% planted vs 30% avg, MN 65% vs 25% avg, IL 57% vs 25% avg and NE 47% vs 26% avg. Nationwide, soybeans are 42% planted vs 36% last year and 22% avg.
ï‚· U.S. winter wheat conditions improved 1% in good/excellent last week to 49% g/e and compares to 53% g/e last year. HRW and SRW conditions ticked higher, while white wheat conditions slipped again. Overall, HRW conditions remain a bit below the 5-year average, but better than the 10-year avg, while SRW conditions are now the 2nd best for this time of the year since 2004. White wheat conditions are the lowest in six years.
ï‚· Spring wheat planting had another strong week, as well, and is now 70% complete vs 49% last week, 40% last year and 51% avg. SD is 66% planted vs 42% avg, SD 91% vs 72% avg and MN 97% vs 52% avg.
 USDA announced the sale of 680k tonnes of new crop, 2021/22, corn to China this morning, bringing the 3-day total announcements to 3.1 MMT. As of last week’s Export Sales report, China did not have any new crop corn on the books as of 4/29/21.
 ADM announced they will build a 150k bushel/day soybean crush plant in Spiritwood, ND in what will be the state’s first dedicated soybean crush facility, with completion targeted by the 2023 harvest. Soybean oil produced at the plant will be earmarked for renewable diesel production at a western ND refinery which was recently retrofitted to refine up to 12k barrels (504k gallons) of veg oil daily.
 France’s ag ministry estimated this year’s corn planted area will decline 10% from last year, but they are a rather minor corn producer with area estimated at 1.44 million hectares (3.6 mil acres) vs 1.61 mil hectares (4.0 mil acres) last year. France maintained their estimate of soft wheat area this year at 4.89 mil hectares (12.1 mil acres), which is up a substantial 15% from last year’s 4.26 mil hectares (10.5 mil acres) and slightly above the 5-year average.
 Providing details on the previously-announced plans to reinstitute an import duty on wheat imports, Morocco’s ag ministry said the rates will be set at 135% for soft wheat and 170% for hard wheat effective June 1. The move follows a massive rebound in this year’s wheat crop to 7.2 MMT from only 2.6 MMT last year, with similar years of production typically seeing annual wheat imports around 3.7 MMT vs 6.5 MMT imported last year.
ï‚· South Korea passed on their tender for 69k tonnes of corn for LH Jul shipment, with the lowest offer of $347.80/tonne c&f being too high.
Weather
NOTE: We have added weather model-estimated precip summary tables to our daily comments. The tables summarize the GFS and European model’s estimated precip by region and by period, along with the change in estimated precip from the forecast 24 hours prior. The U.S. table below compiles estimated state-average precip forecasts into regional averages: WCB (NE, MN, IA, MO), ECB (IL, IN, OH, WI), S. Plains (KS, OK, TX), N. Plains (ND, SD). On the following page, tables including precip estimates by state, as well as Brazilian safrinha corn areas and Ukraine production areas are also available. Precip activity over the last 24 hours was very limited with the corn belt and northern plains essentially dry. The Central/Southern Plains saw .25-1.00†with 40% coverage, heavily favoring the previously driest areas including the eastern half of CO and western half of KS.