Prices of maize rose marginally across key spot markets due to a decline in arrivals and largely steady demand from poultry feed and starch manufacturers.

In Sangli, arrivals were pegged at 525 bags (1 bag = 100 kg), compared with 950 bags on Tuesday, traders said. In Nizamabad, arrivals were seen at 500 bags (1 bag = 100 bags) against 650 bags on Tuesday, traders said.

Demand from bulk buyers is seen robust going ahead as they are stocking up the grain in bulk fearing a smaller crop in the kharif season. Market participants pegged the kharif maize crop at 16.1 mln tn, lower than the government’s estimate of 19.9 mln tn.

Corn futures gave back Tuesday gains with Wednesday losses of as much as 3 cents in nearby contracts. The weekly update from the Energy Information Administration showed a decrease in average daily ethanol production.

Production was 1.064 m bpd, which was 8,000 bpd lower than last week. This was the first report in the last 12 weeks that showed a wk/wk decrease to production.

The same week last year averaged 1.046m bpd. Ethanol stocks were shown at 21,789k barrels, which was 8.73% lower yr/yr.

Export sales estimates for corn in the week ending 12/12 are 1.2 MMT to 2 MMT, with Mexico having purchased 1.074 MMT in previously announced sales. USDA will release the weekly report in the morning.