2011 China corn imports uncertain

BEIJING (Dow Jones)--The outlook for Chinese corn imports this year remains uncertain after an 18-fold increase in 2010, the chairman of China's state grain trader said Sunday.

Higher global corn prices have limited Chinese demand for corn imports, Ning Gaoning, chairman of Cofco Group, said on the sidelines of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body that meets alongside the National People's Congress, China's legislature.

"Companies will not import corn at current prices," Ning said.

China's imports of distiller's dried grains, or DDGs as the corn-ethanol byproduct is known, have also fallen sharply due to "inappropriate" global prices and concerns that the Chinese government may levy high import duties on the product after it launched an antidumping investigation, he said.

The U.S. farm industry views DDGs as a new trade opportunity in China. Chinese imports rose strongly this year amid expectations the commodity will prise feedmeal market share away from corn.

Cofco, one of China's largest grain and oilseed importers, is also importing feed wheat from Australia, Ning said. But the company's and China's future moves in the global wheat market still depend on prices, he added.

Soybean imports for this year will be no less than in 2010, when the country brought in a record 54.8 metric million tons, thanks to surging cooking-oil demand, Ning said. "Prices of imported soybeans will be higher and higher," he said, without elaborating.

China is unlikely to export grain in the future, and has no plans to export wheat this year despite of high inventories, Ning added.

"The government completely has no intention of exporting grain," he said.

Beijing's efforts to contain rising food prices, with prices of soyoil, rapeseed oil, and palm oil effectively capped, have caused some problems for some food producers, he said.

"The timing for lifting the price caps still depends on the government," Ning said.

He also denied media reports that Cofco Group's corn processing units in northeastern China, the country's major corn producing area, were told by the government to suspend corn purchases to make way for the entrance of China Grain Reserves Corp., the government stockpiler, to the market.

"We have sufficient corn stocks at this moment," Ning said.

China imported 1.57 million tons of corn last year, according to customs data.

(Source: http://www.agriculture.com/markets/analysis/corn/2011-china-cn-impts-uncertain_9-ar15177)