China sorghum imports jump after Beijing dropped probe…

BEIJING, July 23 (Reuters) – China’s sorghum imports jumped 38.1 percent in June from a year ago, boosted by a temporary easing of Sino-U.S. trade tensions, customs data showed on Monday.

China brought in 450,000 tonnes of sorghum in June, up from last year’s 324,301 tonnes. Volumes were still down slightly from 470,000 tonnes in May, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Beijing announced in mid-April that importers of sorghum from the United States would have to put up a 178.6 percent deposit on the value of shipments. Several cargoes already on the way changed course and were diverted to other markets.

A month later in a goodwill measure, however, China dropped the deposit and an anti-dumping probe into U.S. sorghum imports as the two sides appeared to be reaching consensus on resolving trade issues.

“Some cargoes were already on the way to China when Beijing dropped the deposit. Then they cleared customs in weeks after. That should have pushed up the June volumes,” said Cherry Zhang, an analyst with Shanghai JC Intelligent Co Ltd, before the data release.

Still, U.S. sorghum exports to China should drop significantly in July and August, analysts and traders said, as Beijing imposed a 25 percent tariff on U.S. grains on July 6. Supplies in the U.S. market are also expected to drop as old-crop sorghum was being sold out and new-harvest supply had yet to become available.

The United States shipped 4.76 million tonnes of sorghum to China in 2017, worth around $1.1 billion and making up the bulk of China’s roughly 5 million tonnes of imports of the grain, according to Chinese customs data.

In the first half of this year, China has brought in 3.25 million tonnes of sorghum, up 8.7 percent from the same period of 2017, the data showed.

China’s corn imports in June jumped 34.6 percent from a year ago to 520,000 tonnes, and imports of the grain in the first six months this year tripled to 2.21 million tonnes, according to the data.

China brought in 590,000 tonnes of barley in June, down 5.6 percent from a year ago. Barley imports for the first half of the year were at 4.4 million tonnes, down 2.7 percent.

Wheat imports were at 310,000 tonnes in June, down 33.6 percent from a year ago. Wheat imports for the first half were at 1.95 million tonnes, down 26.4 percent, the data showed.

China bought 280,000 tonnes of sugar and 98,566 tonnes of pork in June. In the first half of the year, China’s sugar imports were at 1.38 million tonnes, and shipments of pork were at 647,985 tonnes, both down from last year’s levels. (Reporting by Hallie Gu and Josephine Mason; Editing by Richard Pullin and Tom Hogue)