The US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday released its forecast for ending stocks of corn produced in the US for the 2016-17 marketing year to 2.153 billion bushels.
In its latest monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, the agency released its first forecasts for for the 2016-7 marketing year and most were higher compared with its expectations for the previous marketing year.
The agency's forecast for beginning stocks rose 72,000 bushels from the previous year to 1.803 billion bushels.
USDA's production forecast also rose, increasing from a 2015/16 estimate of 13.601 billion bushels to 14.430 billion bushels while the yield of 168.0 bushels/harvested fell slightly compared with the year-ago estimate.
The 2016-17 area planted forecast rose 5.6 million acres to 93.6 million acres, while the expected area harvested also rose to 85.9 million acres. Export demand grew as well, rising 250 million bushels to 1.900 billion bushels.
The agency's imports forecast fell from the prior year's projection of 50 million bushels to 40 million bushels for 2016/17.
USDA's corn feed and residual use forecast rose to 5.550 billion bushels. Its projection for total domestic demand rose to 12.220 billion bushels, while the projection for corn food, seed and industrial use rose to 6.670 billion bushels from year-ago estimates.
Within this estimate, the projection for corn used for ethanol and byproducts was 5.300 billion bushels.
Of the 14.430 billion bushels projected to be produced, 36.73% is estimated to be used for ethanol and byproducts production.
Meanwhile, the forecast for the midpoint of the season-average price dropped to $3.35/bushel from $3.60/bushel, the USDA further narrowed its projected range to $3.05-$3.65/bushel from $3.50-$3.70/bushel in 2015/16 estimates.
