Ethanol Blog

With a 35-to-40-cent drop in corn prices this week, spot prices of dried distillers dropped as well.

The DTN weekly DDG spot price average fell $3 per ton this week, from $261 to $258. After a long upward trend since mid-November, spot prices have now hovered between $256 and $261 since Thanksgiving.

Of the 29 Midwestern locations DTN collects prices from, 16 locations reported their spot prices had decreased between $2 and $10 per ton. Prices at 10 locations remained unchanged since last week, and only three locations said their prices increased $5.

Merchandisers told DTN that the primary reason for the decrease in prices was the downward movement in corn prices. However, also factoring into the equation was that plants are trying to sell off product to avoid building up excess supplies over the holidays.

The value of DDG relative to corn continued to rise, from about 97% during the first week of December to almost 104% this week. Similarly, the value of DDG relative to soybean meal rose from nearly 57% to 60% during the same time period.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG was $10.32 this week, compared to the cost per unit of protein for soybeans at $9.

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

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