By Karl Plume
CHICAGO (Reuters) -Two cargo vessels were headed for grain port terminals near New Orleans on Monday to load with the first U.S. soybean shipments to China since May, according to a shipping schedule seen by Reuters.
A third vessel was en route to a Texas Gulf Coast grain terminal to be loaded with China-bound U.S. sorghum in the coming days in what will be the first American shipment of the feed grain to China since mid-March, the shipping schedule showed.
U.S. farmers and grain traders have been awaiting shipments to China to resume after Beijing shunned U.S. crops for months due to a trade war with Washington, costing U.S. farmers billions on lost trade.
China has booked nearly 2 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans and a smaller volume of wheat since a meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October, when the White House said Beijing agreed to buy 12 million tons of soybeans by the end of the year. China has not confirmed the deal and questions about the agreement or when any sales would ship have fueled uncertainty in grain markets.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday that the Trump Administration expects to sign a deal within two weeks.
The vessel Ocean Harvest is due to arrive at Cargill’s Reserve, Louisiana, terminal and the vessel Tokugawa is scheduled to arrive at a Convent, Louisiana, terminal owned by Zen-Noh Grain this week, both to be loaded with U.S. soybeans, the shipping schedule showed. A third vessel, Bungo Queen, is due to arrive for loading with U.S. sorghum at the Archer-Daniels-Midland terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the next week.
Cargill, ADM and Zen-Noh did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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