Milling & Baking News - June 30, 2020 - 40

Ingredient Week

Bakery Flour

Family Flour

Bakery flour bookings were steady
last week as the industry monitored the
advancing winter wheat harvest. Prices
were lower, sharply in the case of spring
grades after a decline in the Minneapolis
basis and a bump in millfeed prices.
Spring grade buyers were the most
active, one miller said. Top buyers were
commercial bakers filling gaps in coverage for the third and fourth quarters and
distributors buying hand to mouth. At
the same time, cookie-cracker and specialty bakers were taking "a pretty strong
position," he said, booking more soft
flour than they had for several weeks.
Flat pricing was common for some
millers. One said component buyers had
earlier locked in a considerable amount
of basis and millfeed coverage and were
slowly "pulling the trigger as futures come
down to fill out their positions." In some
cases, the reality of wheat coming out of
the ground encouraged contracting.
Pan bread flour buyers' coverage was
at about 85% for the third quarter, 55%
for the fourth quarter and ranged from
virtually none to 20% for the first quarter
of 2021. Spring-grade customers have contracted close to 80% of their needs through
September but widely varied in coverage
from 35% to 70% for October-December
and zero to 25% for the first quarter. Cookie-cracker and specialty bakers still lagged
the other buyers but have covered about
60% of their needs through September,
40% through December and as much as
10% for January-March 2021. MBN

Bakery ﬂour

Semolina
Pasta manufacturers and other buyers
added coverage of semolina, granulars
and durum flour at a steady pace last
week. Prices were moderately lower.
The price of choice milling hard amber
durum as quoted at the Chicago rail gateway for delivery beyond was $8.50 a bu.
The Minneapolis price was $8.20 a bu.
Orders exceeded a typical June pace
even as manufacturing slowed and inventories expanded. Millers were hopeful the uptick may be a new normal as
pasta consumption increases perhaps

No. 1 hard amber durum

Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
- Change from - Year
June 26 June 19 June 12 ago
Kansas City
Bakers short patent
Bakers standard patent
Second clear
Third clear
Minneapolis
Spring short patent
Spring standard patent
High gluten
Whole wheat
Specialty whole wheat
Fancy spring clear
First spring clear
Rye, white
Chicago
Cracker
Fancy cake
New York
Winter/spring blend
Spring standard patent
High gluten
Fancy cake
Rye, white
Los Angeles
Bakers standard patent
Pastry
40 / June 30, 2020

While continuing to slow from the extraordinary pace of April and May, shipments of national and regional brands of
family flour remained brisk. Carlot list
prices were unchanged.
Flour manufacturers had cut back
runtimes from seven to about five days
last week as volumes in June declined by
about half from May. Inventories were
steadily building in warehouses. Crews
in some cases were shifted from packing
2- and 5-lb bags to larger sizes, such as
25- and 50-lb bags, for foodservice.
Still, a mid-South miller noted volumes in June, "normally just pitiful,"
were on pace to be 30% to 40% higher
year over year. Temporary staffs remained in place and may quickly switch
back to the small-bag lines if volumes
were to ramp back up due to a second
wave of COVID-19 cases and government lockdowns, he said. MBN

14.45
14.35
8.85
...

-0.20
-0.20
-
...

-0.30
-0.30
-
...

15.55
15.45
8.85
...

Track, Minneapolis
$ per bu

14.50
14.40
15.40
14.40
14.75
14.25
14.15
20.40

-1.35
-1.35
-1.35
-1.35
-1.35
-1.35
-1.35
-0.10

-1.00
-1.00
-1.00
-1.00
-1.00
-1.00
-1.00
-0.10

15.30
15.20
16.20
15.20
15.55
15.05
14.95
22.30

Bulk, f.o.b. Minneapolis, $ per cwt
- Change from -
June 26 June 19 June 12
Semolina
20.90
-.10
-.10
Granulars
20.70
-.10
-.10
Flour
20.60
-.10
-.10
First clear
14.00
-
-
Second clear
7.00
-
-
Semolina - N.Y. 24.10
-.10
-.10

13.25
14.75

-0.25
-0.25

-0.75
-0.75

14.80
16.30

16.85
16.90
17.90
16.75
22.90

-0.20
-1.25
-1.25
-0.25
-0.10

-0.30
-0.75
-0.75
-0.75
-0.10

17.95
17.20
18.20
18.30
24.80

19.05
19.10

-0.20
-0.20

-0.30
-0.30

20.15
20.20

Milling & Baking News

Bakers standard, Kansas City
Bulk, f.o.b. car, per cwt
$18.50
$16.50
$14.50

Track, Chicago
- Change from - Year
$ per bu
June 26 June 19 June 12 ago
Choice milling 13% 8.50
-
-
7.40

Choice milling 13% 9.20

outlast coronavirus lockdowns. Average
durum mill runtimes continued to ease
last week to 5½ days.
In the last days of the second quarter, pasta manufacturers extended their
July-September coverage to 95% with
the remainder tagged for customers who
tend to purchase hand to mouth. Fourthquarter coverage advanced but varied
by milling company from 60% to 75%.
Only a tiny amount of business was on
paper for first quarter 2021, a miller said.
All eyes in the market were on the
progress of the northern Plains durum
crop, and specifically on forecast rains
for most of the week of June 28-July 4.
The rains are "absolutely critical"
to get plant roots to the subsoil, where
moisture is plentiful, a miller said. "Anyone who has even a passing interest in
the durum wheat markets or the semolina markets are paying big-time attention to this," the miller said.
In the meantime, lack of moisture since
planting has stressed the durum crop
and reduced the yield potential. Short
stands and smaller heads were common
in a North Dakota crop that was about 3%
headed last week. The USDA lowered its
rating of the North Dakota durum crop
to 51% good to excellent on June 21 from
over 80% two weeks earlier. MBN

$12.50
J

Previous Year

M
Current Year

Spring standard, Minneapolis
+1.00

+1.00

7.10

Semolina

$19.00
$17.00

Year
ago
18.10
17.90
17.80
14.50
8.00
21.30

Nationally advertised family ﬂour

$15.00
$13.00
$11.00
J

Previous Year

M
Current Year

Cracker ﬂour, Chicago
Bulk, f.o.b. car, per cwt
$16.20

Dollars
June 26
Family patent, 2-25s papers 24.12
4-10s
...
8-5s
18.52
18-2s
20.64
Self-rising
...

Bulk, f.o.b. car, per cwt

Year ago
24.12
...
18.52
20.64
...

$15.20
$14.20
$13.20
$12.20
$11.20
J

S
Previous Year

M
Current Year

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - June 30, 2020

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