Country News
Brazil: UNICA reported that ethanol exports for June were down from a year earlier. By contrast, ethanol imports were high in June, reaching 199.5 million liters.
Soybean & Corn Advisor’s Michael Cordonnier raised his estimate of Brazilian corn production by about 1 percent to 95 MMT. As a result, the country will export a near record amount of corn this year (28-30 MMT). Production is encouraged because the government offers an above-market price premium. Corn exports have grown at an average annual rate of 21 percent over the past decade. (Ethanol Producer Magazine; Bloomberg; Reuters; Agra-net)
China: The National Grain Trade Center reports that 72 percent of the 4.3 MMT of corn offered for sale at auction last Friday was sold with an average price of 1,420 yuan. The government offered 2 MMT of corn for auction on 13 July and managed to sell 628 KMT of 2013 corn at an average price of 1,273 yuan ($187.58) (Bloomberg)
India: Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that India can replace Rs 1 lakh crore worth of hydrocarbon imports by bio-fuels but rejected the sugar industry’s demand for an increase in the price of ethanol. The Minister said that the primary job of sugar mills is to manufacture sugar and not ethanol. Meanwhile, U.S. marketers believe that India is a good market for importing more ethanol. (Economic Times; WPI)
Ukraine: UkrAgro estimates that Ukraine’s corn exports this year will reach a record 20.6 MMT, a 600 KMT increase from the earlier estimate. It raised Russia’s projected corn exports from 5 MMT to 5.6 MMT. (Bloomberg)