Another corn purchase by South Korea's largest feedmaker Nonghyup Feed Inc. (NOFI) on Tuesday brought heavy Korean corn buying in June to just over 1.7 million tonnes, traders said. NOFI purchased around 138,000 tonnes of corn expected to be sourced from South America in tender on Tuesday while Korea's Major Feedmill Group (MFG) also bought about 69,000 tonnes in a separate deal.
Chicago corn hit a seven-month low last week and dropped again on Monday, on concerns about the impact of the US/China trade war coupled with good US crop weather.
"Corn prices are still low and Asian importers are regarding this as a good opportunity to get supply cover in," one European trader said. "Prices could rise sharply if the US crop weather changes or the China trade dispute calms down, so some big contracts are being settled."
NOFI's corn was bought in two consignments, both at $207.89 a tonne c&f plus a $1.25 a tonne surcharge for additional port unloading. The seller of all the corn was trading house Cargill, traders said. The corn was sought by NOFI from optional origins in two consignments of between 45,000 to 69,000 tonnes for arrival around November 25 and December 5.