Central Florida: Farmers served by dealers who are in turn served from Central Florida put money up before the end of last year to avoid having to pay taxes for fertilizer they will use this year. A source said they were ordering no particular product and would decide later.
The Northeast was cold and wet, with more ice and snow on the way as of late last week. However, coastal areas from Pennsylvania to Maine were experiencing abnormally dry weather, and there were even some pockets of moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The South was faring much better. Virginia, Alabama, and the Carolina all saw improvements on the Drought Monitor, though abnormally dry conditions were spreading somewhat in south-central Florida, where planting will begin in the next few weeks.
Phosphate producers were getting ready to start their quarterly negotiations with sulfur suppliers for first-quarter deliveries of molten sulfur to Tampa. Speculation was that the price will increase, reversing a trend from last year.
The Central Florida phosphate market remained quiet last week, and that will not change for awhile, with the exception of some truck sales. The DAP price range last week moved from a flat $345/st to $355-$365/st FOB, based on prices charged by producers and traders. Both Mosaic and CF Industries, which Mosaic was in the process of purchasing, were posted at $355/st FOB.
MAP prices continued to bring a premium of about $20/st FOB over DAP in the Central Florida market. Sources recently put PotashCorp’s DAP price from Aurora, N.C., at $385/st FOB.
U.S. Gulf: The pace was slow over the holidays, but prices did rise. In reality there were not a lot of NOLA phosphate barges available, but indications were that that will begin to change over the next few months. Koch and Helm were said to be importing additional supplies. One source said Koch was planning to bring in a load of Russian product rather than OCP only.
Mosaic was holding off on making additional commitments to the NOLA DAP barge spot market, although it was not clear how long that situation will continue. Most likely, when prices are high enough, that will change.
Barge traffic north of St. Louis was not a good idea last week, as extremely low temperatures were freezing the river in many areas, making navigation difficult and dangerous. However, docks were still operating in the St. Louis area, and Blytheville, Ark., was open for business after having been shut down for a prolonged period due to low water levels.
A 4 p.m. snapshot of the futures market on Jan. 2 showed corn, soybean, and wheat prices all down. Corn for March 2014 was $4.205/bushel, down from $4.3425/bushel at last report, while corn for May 2014 had slipped to $4.29/bushel from the previous $4.305/bushel. Trading of December 2014 corn contracts checked in at $4.4825/bushel, down slightly from the previous $4.5575/bushel.
The March 2014 soybean price was $12.70/bushel, falling from $13.19/bushel two weeks earlier. Soybeans for May 2014 were put at $12.5125,/bushel, while soybeans for November 2014 slipped to $11.29/bushel from the previous $11.5825/bushel.
Wheat for March 2014 was put at $6.3125/bushel, down from the last period’s $6.5275/bushel. Wheat for May 2014 was also down at $6.34/bushel, compared with $6.5375/bushel at last report.
Terminal prices were generally stagnant last week, even as the price of NOLA DAP and MAP barges moved up. One of the reasons was minimal activity; virtually all terminal operators said business ranged from very slow to none at all.
The NOLA DAP barge price range last week firmed to $365-$380/st FOB based on actual trades, compared with the previous range of $345-$370/st FOB. MAP was reported in the $380-$390/st FOB range. Higher prices were expected to be the rule in February and March