Chinese buyers returned to the U.S. grain market last week, purchasing significant amounts of sorghum. Jim McCormick, branch manager of Ag Market, speaks to what looks to be a ?buying spree.?
?They announced another sale this morning of over 100,000 tons of sorghum. Sorghum is, at least, one of the products they are buying as they start to implement this Phase One deal. The deal officially kicks in in March, and there?s a lot of hope and optimism that we will start to see China make some good faith efforts to buy products across the board. I?ve heard (of) pork, beef, (soy)beans, and corn potentially being bought,” McCormick said.
Grain markets stand to benefit from the spike in demand, especially as the Coronavirus expands globally.
“The biggest fear with the coronavirus is the unknown and how to stop it,” McCormick said. “There’s debate on how deadly it is, but the fact of the matter is a lot of people don’t want to risk getting anybody sick. A lot of companies are not having their employees fly, and we’re starting to hear (of) conventions being shutdown. This is going to have a negative effect on demand near-term, specifically for the beef industry.”
