Country News
Argentina: The Energy Ministry last month increased the amount refiners must pay for corn-based ethanol by 0.7 percent and this month they’ve increased the procurement price of sugarcane-based ethanol by 5.0 percent to 16.070 pesos/liter. (Platts)
Brazil: Conab increased its estimate for this year’s corn production by 1 MMT to a total of 93.83 MMT. The winter crop portion is a record 67 MMT. Leonardo Portalete of the state-owned rural agency Famasul says the corn in Mato Grosso do Sul is “very beautiful.” However, the Real needs to weaken relative to the dollar closer to 4/1 to ensure competitiveness on the global market. (Platts, Bloomberg)
Meanwhile, Brazil’s ethanol imports were up 122 percent on the month (May) and up six-fold on the year. Most of the ethanol arrives from the U.S. and some of it was speculative purchasing ahead of the potential imposition of a protective import tariff. Brazil’s ethanol exports, which mostly go to the U.S., were down 35 percent in May and are down 48 percent year-on-year for the first five months. The FOB price ($555.90/cubic meter) declared was down 7 percent from April and down 20 percent from a year ago. (Platts)
China: The government sold nearly 475 KMT of 2013 corn at 1,332 yuan ($196.01)/MT. That was just one-quarter of the corn offered and a sharp drop from the 4.2 MMT of corn sold last Thursday. Last Friday, 1.36 MMT out of 3.2 MMT offered were sold at an average price of 1,347/MT ($198.27), plus there were sales by Sinograin. There was 162 KMT of lower quality corn sold to starch and ethanol makers at 1,235/MT ($181.79). (Reuters)
EU: An EU General Court provided an initial ruling against an antidumping duty imposed a half a decade ago on ethanol imported from the U.S. but the extra 9.5 percent tariff expires next year. In anticipation, there are subtle market signals that some in the trade are preparing to return to the more active movement of ethanol across the Atlantic. (ICIS News)
Kenya: A shortage of corn blamed on the drought by the government has sent the price of maize flour up by 60 percent. The government has lifted tariffs on imported corn, released stored stockpiles of corn that was rotten, and is now paying subsidies to corn companies that are supposed to charge less for their product. However, some claim there is broad based corruption involved in an election year. (NPR)