March 8, 2017
BY Sean Broderick, CHS
As March (and springtime) begins, prices have been softening. DDGS production has been strong, and the world has an ample supply of grains. As a result, new distillers trades that are happening are not moving the market as much as earlier. There were a lot of plants that locked in production margins when they were better back in November and December, and have been living off those DDGs sales made for January and February. All along, for March and deferred months, plants were seeing spot DDGS values versus corn prices at historically low percentages, and elected not to sell. Now, there are lower prices trading, particularly in the spot time frames.
Internationally, Chinese New Year and the accompanying Asian logistics challenges are in the past. The Vietnamese market is still not open to DDGS due to fumigation issues and Chinese buying is still slow because of the antidumping tariff. Prices are nearly low enough, however, for Chinese buyers to be able to pay the tariff and still have it work in their rations. It’s truly remarkable. There has also been good demand from Thailand. Mexican buying has been quite strong, with the added bonus of much improved rail logistics resulting in fast turns.
One challenge has been the strong dollar, especially in Mexico. While down a bit in recent weeks, the news of NAFTA renegotiation being opened in mid-March is sure to present more volatility.
Price comparison, $/ton
LOCATION |
April 2017 |
March 2017 |
April 2016 |
Minnesota |
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90
90
120
Chicago
100
105
140
Buffalo, N.Y.
125
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105
145
Central Calif.
152
160
187
Central Fla.
142
148
162
The U.S. Energy Information Administration maintained its 2025 and 2026 forecasts for biodiesel, renewable diesel and “other biofuel” production, which includes SAF, in its latest Short Term Energy Outlook, released May 6.
Ethanol Producer Magazine has announced the keynote speakers for the 2025 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo (FEW) being held June 9-11, 2025, at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The general session will take place June 10.
The U.S. exported 15,050.4 metric tons of biodiesel and biodiesel blends of B30 or greater in March, according to data released by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service on May 6. Biodiesel imports were at 14,991.9 metric tons for the month.
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal on May 5 announced that a preliminary investigation launched earlier this year did not find evidence that imports of U.S. renewable diesel are causing harm to Canada’s domestic renewable diesel industry.
Aemetis Inc. has announced that its subsidiary in India, Universal Biofuels, on April 24 began shipments to fulfill multiple orders for more than 33,000 kiloliters of biodiesel from the government-owned oil marketing companies.