Ethanol Blog

A quiet week in trade resulted in prices of dried distillers grains increasing only $1 per ton in the past week, continuing on a steady trend since mid-December.

The DTN weekly DDG spot price average rose only slightly this week, from $126 per ton last week to $127 this week. This is the sixth week the average has remained steady, fluctuating only between $125 and $127 per ton during that time.

Of the 36 Midwestern locations DTN collects spot prices from, 30 locations reported their spot prices remained unchanged since last week. Prices at six locations increased between $2 and $5 per ton. No price decreases were reported to DTN this week.

Merchandisers told DTN this week that with ethanol margins being a little snug, some plants have slowed down production and resulted in supplies being slightly tight in the nearby. The continuing low prices this week may be from plants trying to clean out supplies before the month's end; however, some merchandisers report a fair amount of interest from new domestic customers.

The value of DDG relative to corn this week fell from about 99% last week to about 97% this week. The value of DDG relative to soybean meal rose slightly, from about 46% last week to about 47% this week.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG remained unchanged from last week at $5.08, as did the cost per unit of protein for soybean meal at about $5.73.

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

(ES)

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