Central Florida: Last week, rain helped ease dry conditions in New York and portions of Pennsylvania, as well as northern Florida and southern Georgia, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. However, the monitor placed South Florida in the extremely dry category.
Rain also helped slow the harvest in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic last week, so farmers were not swarming dealers. As a result, dealers were continuing their strategy of buying only relatively small amounts to keep some product in their bins.
While market conditions will not help anyone in the industry this calendar year, a lot of phosphate, potash, and other fertilizers will have to go down in the spring in order for farmers to get the size yields they have come to expect, or at least hoped for during the past few years.
Prompt DAP railcar sales have been nearly nonexistent in recent months, but producers have said contract sales were solid and have been this fall season, which should mean no curtailment of production.
The Central Florida market range for DAP changed slightly, from $365-$370/st FOB the previous week to $360-$370/st FOB last week. MAP prices continued to bring a premium of about $20/st FOB over DAP in the Central Florida market. Sources put PotashCorp’s DAP price from Aurora, N.C., at $410/st FOB last week.
U.S. Gulf: The week after Halloween turned out to be more of a trick than a treat for the industry.
Offers on NOLA DAP and MAP barges loaded or about to be loaded dropped like a third-rate fighter in a fixed boxing match. However, those lucky few who had barges farther upriver made out like bandits.
It was like the three most important factors in real estate – location, location, and, of course, location. The difference was $50/st FOB or more.
Last spring, wet weather kept farmers out of their fields, and the planting of corn and soybeans, as well as other crops, was delayed. In some cases, crops were not started until June, which allowed less time to grow and mature. Therefore, it was not surprising that the harvest was delayed, and some of it may not find its way out of the fields until early next year.
That means less fertilizer will be applied between now and the end of the year – which, by the way, was less than two months away.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture was scheduled to issue its estimate shortly after Green Markets press time, but most were betting on a record or near-record corn harvest. Corn prices have been lower this year than during the past several years, and the report could push the price even lower.
In the snapshot of grain prices at 4 p.m. Thursday, lower was exactly what grain prices did all across the board compared to the previous week. For December 2013, corn was $4.205/bushel, a decrease from the $4.2825/bushel for the previous reporting period. Corn for December 2014 was posted at $4.6125/bushel, lower in comparison to $4.695/bushel the previous week. The soybean price for January 2014 was $12.665/bushel. Beans for November 2014 were posted at $11.475/bushel, lower than the $11.5825/bushel the previous reporting period. Wheat for December 2013 changed to $7.125/bushel, down from the previous week’s $7.405/bushel. Wheat for July 2014 was $7.0675/bushel, which was lower than the $7.23 of the previous week. Meanwhile, wheat for July 2015 was posted at $7.1175/bushel, less than the $7.17/bushel from the last report.
Warehouse and terminal DAP prices last week were in the range of $375-$410/st FOB, and MAP at terminals was running approximately $10-$20/st FOB higher than for DAP.
The paper market for future deliveries for December was as low as $320/st FOB, with a range of $320-$330/st FOB, but prices for January were expected to be higher as spring draws nearer.
The only actual transactions found last