Ethanol Blog

Prices of dried distillers grains remained mostly unchanged, rising only $1 per ton in the past week, due to a slow trading week.

The DTN weekly DDG spot price average rose $1 per ton last week, from $234 per ton the week before to $235. This continues a small three-week upward trend in the average, but only rising $3 per ton since the first week of July. The average, however, has hovered between $232 and $236 per ton for seven consecutive weeks since the first week of June.

Of the 29 Midwestern locations DTN collects prices from, 20 locations reported that their prices remained unchanged since the prior week. Prices at six locations increased, mostly about $5 per ton. Only two locations had prices decreases of $3 and $10 respectively, and one location did not report their prices.

Merchandisers told DTN trading has been fairly quiet with little action, as prices were somewhat uncertain for August and September. Trading has been flat for July with exports leading the way, keeping domestic prices constant.

Worries continue that ethanol plants may have very tight or limited supplies of corn until new crop corn starts to come in. With corn becoming more difficult to buy before harvest, buyers seem are waiting as long as they can to purchase DDG.

The value of DDG relative to corn jumped to 121.63%; however, that figure does not have basis added to the price of corn. Since July 15, the corn price reflects the September contract, which changes the ratio of DDG to corn.

The value of DDG relative to soybean meal jumped to 49.96% last week from 45% the prior week.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG was $9.40, compared to the cost per unit of soybean meal at $9.90.

Cheryl Anderson can be reached at Cheryl.anderson@telventdtn.com.

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