Ethanol Blog

A late-week decline on the corn board and lower basis bids forced prices of dried distillers grains down slightly in the past week.

The DTN weekly spot price average fell only $1 per ton in the past week, from $230 per ton last week to $229 per ton this week. Although this marks the second week of price declines, the average has still hovered between $229 and $236 per ton since late May.

Of the 29 Midwestern locations DTN collects prices from, 11 locations reported that their prices had decreased from last week between $2 and $5 per ton. Prices at 15 locations remained unchanged since last week, while only three locations reported price increases between $2 and $5 per ton.

Merchandisers told DTN on Thursday that pressure on the corn board had brought corn down some 10-plus cents and lower basis bids were largely responsible for the slight dip in DDG prices. Also, plants finally have offers for DDG for August also worked to lower prices. Prices may have fallen even more, but export bids seem to be holding the market steady.

The value of DDG relative to corn this week calculates at about 131.53%, however that is a distorted number. The abrupt shift in the DDG to corn ratio after July 12 is due to the transition from July corn futures to the lower-priced September corn contract.

The value of DDG relative to soybean meal was at about 53.83%.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG was at $9.16 this week, compared to the cost per unit of protein for soybean meal at $8.96.

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