Ethanol Blog

Quiet trade and a steady market resulted in prices of dried distillers grains remaining fairly steady in the past week.

The DTN weekly DDG spot price average rose just $1 per ton in the past week, from $103 per ton last week to $104 this week. This is the third week in a row the average rose, from $97 per ton in mid-October to this week's average of $104, but still the highest point since late September.

Of the 36 Midwestern locations DTN collects spot prices from, 17 locations said their prices were unchanged since last week. A total of 13 locations reported their prices increased between $1 and $5 per ton since last week, while prices at six locations decreased between $5 and $10 per ton.

Merchandisers told DTN this week that in spite of some minor price adjustments in some locations due to small fluctuations in the corn board, the DDG market remained fairly steady in the past week without an abundance of product moving. Ethanol plants were able to keep product fairly replenished, local truck markets remained fairly even and export destinations were steady as well.

The value of DDG relative to corn rose slightly in the past week, from about 76% last week to about 78% this week, but still a great value compared to the months last year when the value was 130% or more. The value of DDG relative to soybean meal fell slightly, from about 29% last week to about 27% this week.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG was about $4.16 this week, compared to the cost per unit of protein for soybean meal at about $8.25.

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

(ES)

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