National headlines deliver quick price changes

January 1, 2004

BY Sean Broderick, Commodity Specialists Company (CSC

The last couple of weeks have been quite interesting—mad cows, mid-week holidays, the Euro at all time highs versus the dollar and oscillating natural gas costs. When national news leads off with stories that directly impact your product, you know that prices are going to be changing a lot quicker than normal. With mad cow fears fueling the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), and talk of meat and bone meal being pulled as a feed supply, vegetable proteins are in demand.

As of the middle of January, prices delivered West Coast have traded down from $160 to $155 at the beginning of the month to $140 - $145 at the time this article went to press. Residual tightness from the holidays kept the market firm into the new year, which was met with decreasing demand and available cars that had previously been difficult to find. However, with the run up in the CBOT, prices stabilized and were bid up $10 f.o.b West Coast to $138 for the summer position.

Going ahead, the futures floors in Chicago are going to dictate what happens for most products. Soy and corn futures will influence DDGS prices, and the strength or weakness of the dollar will directly impact the demand from Europe. Ocean shipping costs are becoming prohibitively high, prices have gone up 20 percent since the beginning of November and the end is not yet in sight. EP

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