Ethanol Blog

Upward movement in the corn board and robust export demand served to push prices of dried distillers grains up once again in the past week.

The DTN weekly DDG spot price average rose $3 per ton this week. This marks the fifth consecutive week the average has increased, rising from $226 per ton the second week of May to this week's average of $246 per ton. However, the last time prices were in the $230-per-ton level was June 2012.

Of the 29 Midwestern locations DTN collects prices from, 14 locations reported that their prices had increased between $2 and $5 per ton since last week. Prices at seven locations remained the same and only one location said it had a price decrease of $5 per ton. Prices from seven locations were not available this week.

Merchandisers told DTN this week that despite a dip in the corn board on Thursday, movement had been up early in the week. Although the increase on the board was the primary driver in the bump-up in DDG prices, a spurt of export demand on the Chicago container market was also an important factor.

The value of DDG relative to corn dipped back to about 98%, virtually the same level as early June, before a brief jump to 101% last week. The value of DDG relative to soybean meal rose slightly since last week, from about 51% to nearly 53%.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG from slightly this week, from $9.32 last week to $9.44 this week. The cost per unit of protein for soybean meal, however, fell from $9.53 last week to $9.38 this week.

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

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