Corn futures traded around $4.20 per bushel, staying close to a three-month low of $4.17 reached on January 13, as markets remained weighed down by oversupply concerns and sluggish demand. The USDA reported that farmers and grain companies held record corn inventories as of December 1, following a record 17 billion-bushel harvest, larger than previously estimated and up 14% from 2024 levels. Looking ahead, the USDA has raised its forecast for the US corn harvest in marketing year 2025/26 by 6.81 million tonnes to a record 432.34 million tonnes. The figure exceeds the previous 2023 record by 40 million tonnes and last year’s output by 54 million tonnes, adding further pressure to prices. While projected US corn consumption was also revised higher by 2.3 million tonnes to 334.5 million tonnes, driven by increased feed demand, analysts had not anticipated such a sharp rise, raising the likelihood that part of the additional supply will ultimately flow into ending stocks.
