BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) – China Grain Reserves Corp
(Sinograin), which manages the state grain reserves, said on
Monday the company is ready to buy U.S. corn as long as prices
are attractive.
“We are ready to buy, and the volume depends much on
prices,” the company’s spokesman, Cheng Bingzhou, told Reuters,
without disclosing what price level would be acceptable.
“Import contracts may have been signed, but I have not been
informed,” when asked about rumours in the market that the
company had signed agreements last week to import 500,000
tonnes.
When asked about rumours that the company had been given
approval to purchase as much as 4 million tonnes of U.S. corn,
the spokesman said: “There is no such volume requirement. It
(import) will depend on the market demand and prices.
“We are using both domestic and international markets to
source supplies. Imports are becoming a regular occurrence. The
key issues are the price and the market demand. As long as the
prices are good, we would import.”
(Reporting by Niu Shuping and Ken Wills)
