Buyers from South Korea are expected to cover their needs for arrival in February onwards and to replace some of their previous purchases of feed wheat from the Black Sea area.
"We expect Korean buyers to seek at least three to four Panama cargoes of corn for February arrivals this week after the Korea Feed Association (KFA) bought 105,000 tonnes of US corn for February/March arrival last week," said a trader with a Seoul-based foreign supplier.
"Current US corn prices and freight rates are relatively low and are enough to attract buyers' interest," he said.
Last week, the KFA bought 52,500 tonnes for arrival on February 15 from Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp and another 52,500 tonnes for arrival on March 1 from Bungle, traders said.
Another trader in Seoul said, however, Korean buyers would take a break to wait for lower corn prices, which remained near 20-year lows. Prices have been pressured by concerns over bird flu, back-to-back bumper corn crops in the United States and solid output of feed grains in other countries.
The first trader said some Korean feed buyers were also expected to start seeking corn to replace some of their previous purchases of feed wheat from the Black Sea area following talk of tight supplies there.
Taiwan buying should be muted this week after recent purchases and a slip in demand due to fears of bird flu. The Members Feed Industry Group will likely seek a 60,000 tonne shipment of US corn later in the week, an official with the group said.
No date has been set yet for the tender. The rival Great Wall Feed Group, whose members include major chicken producers Chorine Pokphand Enterprise Co Ltd (Taiwan) and Great Wall Enterprises, is holding off on major tenders as demand for feed drops, a group official said.
"Different companies and groups have different views on how to handle the current situation. While MFIG continues to buy large amounts, we are more conservative and are buying only hand-to-mouth," the Great Wall official said.
In Japan, corn buyers were mostly on the sidelines after purchases in late October as lower freight rates and falls in premiums were reducing appetite at trading houses.
Japanese trading houses are viewed to be less enthusiastic about selling corn to domestic end-users as selling prices are low and freight rates bearish, meaning that trading houses still have plenty of supplies, traders said.
Japanese buyers were detected to have bought about 800,000 tonnes of corn for January loading in late October. They usually buy about 1 million tonnes each month.
"After covering most requirements until the end of the year, activity for the first quarter is pretty slow after seeing purchases late in October," a Japanese trader said.
"At the moment there are very few aggressive buyers." Currently, corn buyers are trying to fulfil requirements for the January-March period. "Activity is a bit slow compared with other months, but I haven't heard that demand by end-users will be weak during the first quarter," the trader said.
In other markets, South Korean buyers had bought about 100,000 tonnes of feed wheat a month for January and February arrivals, a third Korean trader said.
South Korean feed buyers will also likely seek one Panama cargo of soyameal from South America or India this week for arrival in April.
In the Japanese soyabean market, players are looking to start buying for December, but they are seen reducing their purchases as oilseed crushers are believed to be holding ample inventories amid slow domestic demand.