U.S. Gulf: The market remained quiet last week, though there was speculation that tight supplies may lead to higher prices for Tampa for August.
June imports were down 13 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, to 570,854 st from the year-ago 659,925 st. Imports for the fertilizer year July 2011 to June 2012 were down 9 percent, to 7.1 million st from 7.77 million st.
Eastern Cornbelt: Sources reported few changes to spot fertilizer prices, and little new activity to test the markets. Ammonia pricing remained at $770/st FOB in the Illinois market.
Recent rains in Indiana came too late to salvage damaged corn crops, but the area of the state experiencing extreme or exceptional drought has dropped from 69 percent to 46 percent. USDA has now declared 78 Indiana counties as primary natural disaster areas and the remaining 14 as contiguous areas, meaning all of the state’s 92 counties have now been declared eligible for drought assistance.
According to the Aug. 14 U.S. Drought Monitor, nearly all of Illinois was suffering extreme drought conditions, while the southern edge of the state had transitioned to the more severe exceptional drought category. Most of Ohio was experiencing moderate drought conditions at mid-month.
Just 5-9 percent of the corn acreage in Illinois and Indiana was rated as good or excellent last week, while 71-75 percent of the acreage fell in the poor or very poor categories. Ohio’s corn was 14 percent good or excellent and 53 percent poor or very poor. USDA labeled 50-55 percent of the soybean acreage in Illinois and Indiana as poor or very poor last week, compared with 34 percent in Ohio.
On the national scale, 23 percent of the corn and 30 percent of the soybeans were rated as good or excellent last week, only slightly different from the previous week. Poor or very poor ratings had expanded from the prior week, however, with 51 percent of the national corn crop and 38 percent of the soybeans now placed in those two categories.
Western Cornbelt: One Nebraska dealer said the phone was starting to ring for fall tons, but he doesn’t think there will be much fall applied ammonia in his location if field conditions stay dry.
The anhydrous ammonia market was pegged at $725-$760/st FOB in the region, with the low in Nebraska.
According to the Aug. 14 U.S. Drought Monitor, the area of exceptional drought has expanded to cover a broad section of southern and western Missouri, with nearly all of the rest of the state classified as an extreme drought area. Nearly all of Nebraska is now experiencing either extreme or exceptional drought as well, with the area of exceptional drought expanding considerably from the previous week in central and western areas of the state.
In Iowa, only the southern and northern areas of the state remained in the lesser category of severe drought, with a wide swath of extreme drought conditions reported across the center of the state.
Crop ratings changed only slightly from the previous week. In Nebraska, however, corn and soybean conditions fell 4-9 percentage points, with 41-46 percent of the acreage now rated as poor or very poor.
California: Calamco raised its anhydrous ammonia price on Aug. 13 to $780/st DEL in California, up $35/st from the previous list price. The aqua ammonia price also moved up on Aug. 13, to $209/st FOB from the previous $200/st FOB level.
Agrium also announced new anhydrous and aqua ammonia postings. Effective Aug. 17, Agrium’s anhydrous postings moved to $780/st truck-DEL in Central California and $785/st truck-DEL in Northern California. Agrium’s aqua ammonia posting moved on Aug. 17 to $210/st FOB in California.
Summer heat blanketed much of California in mid-August, wi