Milling & Baking News - November 29, 2005 - 20

D A T A

Flour output up 0.8% in quarter;
nine-month total decreases 0.6%

20 / Milling & Baking News, November 29, 2005

longer issues monthly output reports.
An increase of 15.4% in semolina
output in July-September over a year
ago accounted for the increase in
total flour output . July-September
flour output exclusive of semolina
production (flour-ex-semolina) was
94,221,000 cwts, down 179,000, or
0.2%, from 94.4 million in the third

Census Bureau compilation on quarterly production of flour,
grind of wheat, millfeed output on six-day weekly basis
Flour
Wheat
production, ground,
cwts
bus
-(1,000)'05

Jul-Sep-05
Apr-Jun-05
Jan-Mar-05

101,734
95,017
95,778

228,109
212,229
212,767

1,745,578
1,624,790
1,634,516

1,502
1,495
1,490

1,321
1,234
1,260

88.0%
82.5%
84.6%

74.3%
74.6%
75.0%

'04

Oct-Dec-04
Jul-Sep-04
Apr-Jun-04
Jan-Mar-04

99,669
100,908
96,773
96,575

222,072
224,798
214,515
214,662

1,693,507
1,740,958
1,657,232
1,672,096

1,493
1,503
1,494
1,494

1,294
1,310
1,257
1,305

86.7%
87.2%
84.1%
84.0%

74.8%
74.8%
75.2%
75.0%

'03

Millfeed,
tons

Average
Per
Daily
flour
Per
cent
capacity, per work
cent extraction
cwts day, cwts operated rate
-(1,000)-

Oct-Dec-03
Jul-Sep-03
Apr-Jun-03
Jan-Mar-03

100,502
103,071
96,767
95,875

224,186
231,819
217,371
215,812

1,712,025
1,836,144
1,744,647
1,736,555

1,512
1,517
1,503
1,507

1,339
1,257
1,262
1,302

86.3%
88.2%
83.6%
83.7%

74.7%
74.1%
74.2%
74.0%

'02

WASHINGTON - Flour production
by U.S. mills in the third quarter of
2005 increased 0.8% from the same
2004 quarter, according to the Bureau
of the Census of the U.S. Department
of Commerce. Output in the quarter totaled 101,734,000 cwts, up 826,000 from
100,908,000 in July-September 2004.
The gain over July-September 2004
marked the first year-to-year gain
for any quarter since April-June 2004
when output rose 6,000 cwts over a
year earlier. Prior to that, JanuaryMarch 2004 was up 700,000, OctoberDecember 2003 up 227,000, July-September of that year up 939,000 and
April-June up 491,000. July-September 2002 also was up 55,000. All other
quarters since the start of 2001 were
down from a year earlier.
Even with the gain, production
of flour by U.S. mills in the first
nine months of 2005 fell 0.6% from
2004, totaling 292,529,000 cwts,
against 294,256,000 in the prior year.
It was down 6.1% from the peak
nine-month total of 311,597,000 in
2000. It was the smallest output for
January-September since 292,389,000
in 1998, or seven years ago.
The North American Millers' Association provides funding to the Census
Bureau in support of the compilation
of these milling production statistics.
July-September 2005 output was
the 15th largest for any quarter.
The record three-month output occurred in October-December 2000,
when mills turned out 109,673,000
cwts, followed by July-September
2000 at 108,838,000 and OctoberDecember
1999
at
108,213,000.
So far, U.S. flour output in 23 quarters
has exceeded 100 million cwts. Prior
to this quarter, the last to top the 100million mark was the third quarter of
2004, at 100,908,000.
Output in July-September 2005 was
the ninth largest for this quarter. The
record for July-September occurred in
2000, at 108,838,000 cwts, followed by
1997 at 104,698,000, 1999 at 104,199,000,
1996 at 104,133,000 and 2003 at
103,071,000. The smallest output for
the third quarter in recent history was
68,366,000 cwts in 1977. July-September flour output increased 7.1% over
95,017,000 cwts in April-June 2005.
Average monthly flour production
in the third quarter was 33,911,000
cwts, compared with 31,672,000 in the
second quarter and 33,223,000 in JulySeptember 2004. The Census Bureau no

ing day in July-September, based on the
six-day week and calculated by Milling
& Baking News, was 1,321,000 cwts,
against 1,234,000 cwts in April-June and
1,310,000 in July-September 2004.
The record in daily average output was set in October-December
2000, at 1,443,000 cwts, followed by
July-September 2000 at 1,413,000.
The 24-hour capacity of U.S. mills in
July-September 2005 was placed at
1,502,000 cwts, the Census Bureau
said. This was up 7,000 cwts from

Oct-Dec-02
Jul-Sep-02
Apr-Jun-02
Jan-Mar-02

100,275
102,132
96,276
96,017

224,441
230,327
217,626
217,020

1,795,068
1,810,406
1,657,536
1,629,984

1,499
1,489
1,473
1,493

1,302
1,326
1,250
1,263

86.9%
89.1%
84.9%
84.6%

74.5%
73.9%
73.7%
73.7%

quarter of 2004. This flour-ex-semolina output also was down 1.2% from
95,261,000 in July-September 2003.
It was up from 87,935,000 in the second quarter of this year. The recent
low was in January-March 2002, at
87,490,000 cwts, closely followed by
January-March 2005 at 87,794,000 and
April-June 2005 at 87,935,000. The
record in quarterly flour-ex-semolina
output was in the fourth quarter of
2000, at 101,929,000 cwts.
The last quarter when flour-exsemolina showed an increase over a
year earlier was April-June 2004 when
it was 740,000 more than the second
quarter of 2003. January-March of that
year was up 1,468,000; October-December 2003, 1,777,000; July-September,
1,142,000; April-June, 805,000; JanuaryMarch, 511,000 and July-September,
169,000. All other quarters since 2001
have been under a year earlier.

Daily average 1,321,000 cwts
Average flour production per work-

April-June but down 1,000 from the
third quarter of 2004, which was
1,503,000. Daily capacity of U.S. mills
was down 102,000 cwts from the
peak in April-June 2001 of 1,604,000.

Quarterly grind at 88%
Based on the production and capacity estimates, U.S. flour mills in JulySeptember operated at an average
of 88% of six-day capacity, up from
82.5% in the second quarter and also a
shade above 87.2% in July-September
2004. Quarterly operating rates have
been below 90% since October-December 2000, when the average run
rate was 94.3%. The current quarter
was up sharply from 78.7% in AprilJune 2001, the lowest in 25 years, or
since April-June 1977, when mills ran
at only 77.8% of six-day capacity.
Wheat grind in July-September totaled 228,109,000 bus, up 1.5% from
224,798,000 in the same quarter of
2004. It was the 13th-ranking quarter on record. The peak wheat grind
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Milling & Baking News - November 29, 2005

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