U.S. Gulf/Tampa: Players waited until the last minute to pull the trigger on October business for Tampa. Most predictions were for a rollover or a slight increase over September’s $485/mt CFR. When the dust settled, October prices moved up $5/mt to $490/mt CFR.
October NYMEX natural gas settled Sept. 26 at $3.498/mmBtu, down from Sept. 19’s $3.720/mmBtu.
Eastern Cornbelt: With attention firmly focused on the region’s harvest activities, sources reported only minimal changes to the spot fertilizer markets last week.
The anhydrous ammonia market remained at $530-$540/st FOB regional terminals, with the low in Illinois and the upper end in the Indiana market.
As of Sept. 22, some 3-6 percent of the regional corn crop was in the bin, along with 1-4 percent of the soybeans. Ohio remained the region’s garden spot in mid-September, with good or excellent ratings assigned to 79 percent of the corn and 70 percent of the soybeans in the state.
The corn crop in Illinois and Indiana was 60-64 percent good or excellent last week, while soybeans in those two categories totaled 58 percent of the acreage in Indiana and 50 percent in Illinois.
Western Cornbelt: The ammonia market continued to be quoted at $505-$535/st FOB in the region, with the low reported in Nebraska and the upper end FOB Palmyra, Mo.
Record flooding was reported in parts of western and central Nebraska last week as flood waters from Colorado continued to swell the South Platte, North Platte, and Platte rivers.
The South Platte River rose to a record 14.36 feet in North Platte, Neb., on Sept. 23, and flood crests were expected in Kearney and Grand Island, Neb., as the week progressed. The flood surge created few problems in Nebraska, however, because of the diversion of water throughout multiple irrigation districts in the state. Authorities said they expected the diversion to continue for weeks as the flood crest ebbs.
The moisture comes at a good time for the state, as water is needed to recharge aquifers and ponds depleted by severe drought conditions. The dry weather has made for steady harvest progress in the region, but late developing crops continued to keep the pace trailing the five-year average.
As of Sept. 22, just 3-4 percent of the corn in Iowa and Nebraska was in the bin, compared with 16 percent in Missouri. The regional soybean harvest was only 1-3 percent complete by that date. USDA assigned good or excellent ratings to 59-63 percent of the corn and soybeans in Nebraska, compared with 34-37 percent in Iowa and 32-40 percent in Missouri.
Southern Plains: Brisk harvest activity was underway on corn, sorghum, and cotton in the region, although some areas saw heavy rains at mid-month.
Parts of Colorado were still recovering from torrential rains and flooding earlier in September. The flooding in Colorado’s Larimer and Boulder counties resulted from 7-18 inches of rainfall in an eight-day span beginning on Sept. 12. The flash floods claimed at least eight lives, with one still missing as of last week.
Isolated thunderstorms and windy conditions were reported in parts of Kansas last week. The previous weekend brought heavy rainfall to many parts of Texas, including 2-3 inches in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and up to 7 inches in Corsicana. Flood warnings were in effect over the weekend in Austin and Odessa.
Sources reported no change to the regional ammonia market. Anhydrous ammonia pricing was quoted at $460-$465/st FOB regional production points on the low end, with the dealer market out of pipeline terminals in Kansas reported at the $500-$510/st FOB level.
South Central: The Memphis, Tenn., ammonia market was pegged at $520/st FOB last week, w