Ethanol Blog

The dried distillers grains market seemed relatively quiet in the past week, with prices falling only slightly.

The DTN weekly spot price average fell a mere $1 per ton since last week, from $265 per ton to $264. This marks the tenth week that the average has remained fairly stable, hovering between $264 and $271 per ton.

Of the 29 Midwestern locations DTN collects prices from, 17 locations reported their prices remained unchanged from last week. Prices at nine locations had decreased since last week and only three had price increases.

Merchandisers told DTN that the past week was quiet with demand for DDG fairly slow. The slight price decrease was probably because plants wanted to sell off a little extra product at the end of the month. Also, some companies may be selling off product that may have been stockpiled to put in barges when conditions improve on the Mississippi River after recent bouts of cold weather.

The value of DDG relative to corn fell almost 3% to a more comfortable 100.85%, from 103.56% last week. This week marks a 7% drop since the value of DDG relative to corn reached a high of more than 107% during the second and third week of February.

The value of DDG relative to soybean meal has remained steadier, remaining relative unchanged in the past week at 62.43%.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG this week was $10.56, compared to the cost per unit of protein for soybeans at $8.90.

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

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