Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were lower on Wednesday, with all contracts falling to near contract lows, traders said. At 10:07 am CST (1607 GMT), corn was down 1 to 1-3/4 cents per bushel, with March down 1-1/2 at $1.95-1/2 per bushel. FIMAT Futures sold 100 March, pit sources said. Traders said the corn market remained under pressure from the record corn crop produced last year in the United States.

"It's the same song, different verse. There's just too much supply around," a trader said.

The market also remained under pressure amid abundant global stocks of feed grain, and satisfactory crop weather in South America, especially Argentina, is also acting as an anchor for corn futures prices.

Export activity overnight and early Wednesday again showed the competitive nature of the market. Malaysia bought 60,000 tonnes of corn from Argentina and Taiwan set a tender on Thursday to buy 40,000 to 60,000 tonnes of US corn.

Traders said the corn market would remain range bound, with occasional rallies sparked by short covering amid oversold technical signals.

In it's January 12 crop production report, the US Agriculture Department pegged 2004/05 global coarse grain production at a record 996 million tonnes.

Cash basis bids for corn in the Midwest were narrowly mixed and farmer selling was light. Technical support in the March contract was $1.95 per bushel, the contract low. Resistance was at $2 per bushel.

Copyright Reuters, 2005