Maize: Characteristics
Why moisture matters more than anything when grading grain
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 1,331 Mt (2025/26 est.), a record; 1,294 Mt forecast for 2026/27 | US 431 Mt in 2025/26, China about 300 Mt, Brazil 141 Mt. FAOSTAT puts 2024 output at 1,218 Mt. | USDA WASDE (Oct 2026); USDA PSD; FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Inventory and stock levels | world ending stocks 307 Mt (2025/26), 23.3% of use, about 12 weeks | China holds 177 Mt, about 58% of the total, so stocks available to world trade are much thinner. US stocks-to-use is about 11% and Brazil about 7% in 2026/27 forecasts. | USDA WASDE (Oct 2026); USDA PSD (weeks derived) |
| Capacity utilisation | not applicable (land, not plants) | The closest gauge is yield: US 11.7 t/ha (2025/26) against India 3.54 t/ha and Brazil 5.43 t/ha (2024), showing large unused potential on smallholder land. US ethanol plants took 141 Mt, about a third of the US crop. | USDA WASDE (Oct 2026); FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | US 31.0%, top-3 (US, China, Brazil) 64.7%; HHI 1,693 (2024) | Exports are more concentrated: US 32.4%, Brazil 18.5%, Argentina 14.8% and Ukraine 11.5% of 2024 export value. ADM, Cargill, Bunge-Viterra, COFCO and LDC handle much of trade; their volumes are not published. | FAOSTAT 2024; Comtrade 2024 |
| Supply elasticity | annual: area responds within one season; Brazil's second crop adds a mid-year response | Farmers switch between maize and soybeans each spring by price ratio. Weather at pollination dominates yields, so short-run supply is driven more by climate than price. | USDA; content tile |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | growth from yield gains and Brazilian second-crop area; ethanol is the new demand | Brazil's Mato Grosso is adding corn ethanol plants; India's ethanol programme pulled maize into fuel, supplying about half of 10.39 billion litres in 2024-25. Capex is spread across farms and plants, not named projects. | AIDA via BioEnergy Times (Feb 2026); content tile |
| Logistics and export flows | about 216 Mt traded (2025/26), about 16% of output | US maize goes down the Mississippi to Gulf ports and via the Pacific Northwest; Brazil ships from Santos, Paranaguá and northern ports; Ukraine through the Black Sea. Chokepoints are the Panama Canal, low Mississippi water and the Black Sea. | USDA WASDE (Oct 2026); content tile |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Maize is sold by grade, which rests on test weight, damage and foreign material, and above all on moisture, because wet grain spoils and costs money to dry. Feed buyers care about energy and starch; wet millers about starch yield; food buyers about aflatoxin. Most trade is yellow dent maize under US-style grades.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade | US No. 2 Yellow: test weight at least 54 lb/bu; damaged kernels at most 5.0%; heat-damaged at most 0.2%; broken corn and foreign material at most 3.0% | Most export contracts and CBOT futures price US No. 2 Yellow | USDA US Standards for Corn |
| Moisture | about 15% for trade and storage; safe long-term storage about 13% (indicative) | Each extra point of moisture costs drying fuel and raises spoilage risk | Industry norms (indicative) |
| Aflatoxin | US FDA action level 20 ppb for food use; FSSAI limit 15 ug/kg for cereals (indicative) | Contaminated lots are rejected or diverted to lower-value feed | US FDA; FSSAI (indicative) |
| Starch, protein and oil | about 70% starch, 8-10% protein, about 4% oil (dry basis, indicative) | Sets ethanol and starch yields and feed energy | Industry norms (indicative) |
| Kernel hardness | flint versus dent types (indicative) | Hard flint maize suits dry milling and some food uses; dent suits feed and wet milling | Industry practice (indicative) |