Chinese Imports of U.S. Sorghum, Corn Jump Significantly

Chinese imports of U.S. sorghum and corn rose significantly in June after China backed down on conditions imposed in April.

In April Beijing announced that buyers of U.S. sorghum would have to pay a deposit equal to 178.6 percent of the value of the shipment resulting in multiple shipments already in transit diverting their course to alternative markets. One month later China redacted the condition and halted an anti-dumping probe into U.S. sorghum imports.

Following these moves, imports of sorghum in the month of June increased by 38.1 percent year-on-year, totaling 450,000 tons for the month compared to 324,301 tons over the same time period the year before.

Meanwhile, Chinese imports of U.S. corn in the month of June reached 520,000 tons, reflecting a 34.6 percent increase over the same month a year before, and imports for the first six months of 2018 topped 2.21 million tons, nearing total corn import for all of 2017 at 2.82 million tons.

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