Milling & Baking News - December 24, 2013 - 37


Soy Products
Soy flour prices advanced with gains
in soybean meal prices, despite a preholiday lull in new sales. Most bookings
still were two to three weeks forward.
Soybean futures gyrated last week, ending higher mostly on gains last Friday. A
spate of hot weather in soybean-growing
areas of South America boosted U.S. prices. Short-covering also provided a lift. Also
supportive was a private forecast of 2014
U.S. soybean plantings near 82 million
acres, down from 83.8 million acres forecast previously. Earlier in the week, long
liquidation as a prelude to end-of-year position squaring put temporary downward
pressure on futures prices.
Disappointing export sales fed ideas it
was only a matter of time before China
decides to cancel a portion of its purchases of U.S. soybeans in favor of cheaper
offerings from the new South American crop. So far, there was no definitive
evidence that China has opted out of any
U.S. soybean orders. A cancellation of
500,000 tonnes from "unknown," usually
assumed to be China, may simply have
been a switch to a "known" destination.
U.S. soybean net export sales in the
week ended Dec. 12 were 415,500 tonnes
for 2013-14, a marketing year low, and
80,200 tonnes for 2014-15. Trade expectations were 750,000 to 1 million tonnes.
Soybean meal weekly export sales were
a marketing year low of 77,100 tonnes,
the U.S.D.A. said. Analysts expected
100,000 to 300,000 tonnes. MBN

Corn Products
Corn meal prices were higher last week
on gains in corn futures prices, even as
new business was in a relative lull, typical close to year-end holidays. Prices of

Chicago corn and soy futures
Corn Futures
$ per bu
March
May
July
September
December
March
Soybeans
January
March
May
July
August
September
Soybean Meal
January
March
May
July
August
September

+7¾
+7¾
+7¾
+8¼
+8¼
+8¼

-1
-1¼
-1¼
-1¾
-3
-2½

7.02
7.04¾
7.02
6.26¾
6.06¾
6.16¼

+11½
+17¼
+19
+17¼
+17¼
+14½

+13½
+20½
+19½
+13½
+12¾
+10¼

14.30¾
14.29¼
14.18¾
14.13¼
13.84½
13.40¼

+14.00
+10.40
+11.30
+10.70
+9.70
+9.90

+19.20
+14.50
+15.20
+12.50
+11.10
+9.50

433.80
431.40
422.80
417.50
407.40
391.40

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

Oats
Food-grade oats flakes prices held

firm in keeping with strong seasonal demand for hot breakfast cereals.
The oats market, both cash and futures,
has been affected by serious rail logistical difficulties across North America and
especially in Canada. Rail transportation
to move the Canadian harvest to North
American end-users has been extremely
hard to come by because competing commodities, especially crude oil, have been
absorbing most available locomotives.
Cold weather hasn't helped because
trains typically operate less efficiently
when temperatures are low.
A Canadian oats harvest that was one
of the largest in the last five years, as well
as huge U.S. corn and soybean crops, have
further complicated the transportation picture. Country movement both to elevators
and end-users is expected to take much
longer than usual, with some observers
expecting grain movement to continue until the winter wheat harvest begins in 2014.
The oats basis was 50@80c over the
Chicago March oats future, steeper than
usual. End-users are willing to pay higher
prices to get oats, but the transportation
logjam continues to stall movement. Market observers don't see the logistical situation changing significantly any time soon.
The need to ship crude oil in North America is not likely to abate for the foreseeable
future, keeping upward price pressure on
freight and basis levels, including oats. MBN

Rice
U.S. milled rice and rice byproducts prices were unchanged last week.
U.S.D.A. world milled and rough rice
prices were also unchanged.
Net export sales of U.S. rice in the
week ended Dec. 12 were 74,000 tonnes,
up noticeably from the previous week. MBN

Rice

Soy products

- Change from - Year
Dec. 20 Dec. 13 Dec. 6
ago
4.33¼
4.41½
4.48½
4.54¼
4.60¾
4.72
$ per bu
13.39
13.31
13.16
13.01¼
12.71¼
12.11¾
$ per ton
446.60
433.60
424.00
415.50
402.40
385.70

corn products reflected steady basis levels for corn. Hominy feed prices also were
steady at about 70% the value of nearby
corn futures. Inventorying of warehoused
supplies was expected to be conducted in
early January, and corn product producers were eager to draw down their stockpiles to aid the inventory process.
Corn futures prices fluctuated last week
but ended higher on strong export sales,
despite China's rejection of 545,000 tonnes
of U.S. corn in December after finding an
unapproved bioengineered strain in some
shipments. The rejections of the corn made
the market nervous that China might cancel additional shipments at a time when the
U.S. was attempting to digest a record corn
crop and prices were trading at multi-year
lows around $4.25 a bu (nearby March future). Meetings between Chinese officials
and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack occurred in China last week, and market participants expected discussions relating to the issue of bioengineered corn were
surely taking place. No definitive news
came from those talks by week's end.
Ethanol production eased somewhat
from its recent 23-month high but still
operated with highly favorable margins
and comfortably above U.S.D.A. production estimates, traders said.
The U.S.D.A. reported U.S. corn net
export sales in the week ended Dec. 12
were 827,100 tonnes for 2013-14 and
45,200 tonnes for 2014-15, above trade
expectations of 450,000 to 800,000 tonnes.
The U.S.D.A. also reported private sales
of 127,536 tonnes of corn to "unknown,"
130,000 tonnes to South Korea and
180,000 tonnes to Japan last week. MBN

Defatted, f.o.b. Midwest plant, $ per cwt
- Change from -
Dec.20
Dec. 13
Dec. 6
Soy ﬂour
Bulk
35.47 @ 39.73 +.27@ +.70 +1.16 @+.78
Sacked
36.47 @ 41.73 +.27@ +.70 +1.16 @+.78

Corn meal
$ per cwt
Dec. 20
Chicago, bulk
23.91@ 28.68
Chicago, sacked
25.68@ 30.37
New York, bulk
25.58@ 30.27
New York, sacked 28.00@ 32.68

Ingredient Week

- Change from -
Dec. 13
Dec. 6
+.16@+.16 +.08@+.08
+.16@+.16 +.08@+.08
+.16@+.16 +.08@+.08
+.16@+.16 +.08@+.08

Oats
- Change from -
Minneapolis
Dec. 20
Dec. 13 Dec. 6
Food grade ﬂakes, f.o.b.,
bagged, $ per cwt
31.25@32.25
-
+.25
Milling quality oats, No. 2 heavy,
$ per bu
4.04
+9c
+21c
Oat hulls, $ per ton
25@35
-
...

Oﬀers f.o.b. mills, $ per cwt, bagged
- Change from - Year
Cash
Dec. 20
Dec. 13 Dec. 6 ago
Long grain
27.50@28
-
- 26.75
Medium grain 28@29.50
-
- 27.50
Parboiled
29.75@31
-
- 29.25
Second
heads, bulk 19@19.50
-
- 19.50
Brewers
17.50@19.50
-
-
17
f.o.b. mills, $ per ton
Rice millfeed
70
-
+5
...
Rice bran
185@215
-
-
200
Rice hulls
40
-
-
30
U.S.D.A. 2012 crop world price milled - $ per cwt
Long grain
18.67
- +0.31 19.22
Medium/short
grain
18.30
- +0.29 18.93
Broken
12.79
- +0.21 13.60
C.B.O.T. rough rice futures - $ per cwt
January
15.50
-4½
-4½ 15.21
March
15.44
-17
-35 15.50
May
15.48½
-25
-35 15.82
July
15.33½
-24
-35 16.00
Milling & Baking News December 24, 2013 / 37

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Milling & Baking News - December 24, 2013

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