The top importer of the crop is turning to Brazil
Major US corn buyer China has been reducing imports from the country due to weak demand and cheaper supplies from Brazil, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
Chinese buyers have reportedly canceled 832,000 tons of US corn orders in the past three weeks, while ramping up purchases from fellow BRICS member Brazil, which is projected to pass the US as the top exporter this year.
According to the report, citing traders, US corn is now less competitive, with supplies from Brazil around $30 a ton cheaper for delivery in the third quarter. Weak domestic demand for corn as animal feed was also listed among the reasons behind the cancelations.
“Demand for corn is really poor,” Wang Xiaoyang, a senior analyst with Sinolink Futures in one of the top grain-growing provinces, Henan, told Bloomberg. “Feed producers are using a lot of wheat to replace corn as prices keep falling.”
The report indicated that wheat prices are around 180 yuan ($26) a ton cheaper than corn in Henan and may decline further.
Meanwhile, traders and analysts pointed out that struggling hog farmers are seeking to cut feed costs, “so replacing corn with wheat is a natural choice.”
Customs data shows that Chinese corn imports hit a record of over 28 million tons in 2021, before falling to about 21 million tons last year.
READ MORE: Chinese food security push poses threat to US – report
China is reportedly seeking to shift away from its heavy reliance on the US and Ukraine for corn by diversifying suppliers, amid geopolitical uncertainty threatening the country’s food security. This month, China also received its first shipload of feed corn from South Africa, another fellow member of BRICS.......More Below
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
