This article has been reprinted from the March 28 USDA Grain Transportation Report.
Export Sales
For the week ending March 14, unshipped balances of wheat, corn, and soybeans totaled 32.9 mmt.
This indicates a 13 percent decrease from the same time last year.
Net weekly wheat export sales were .299 mmt, up 14 percent from the previous week.
Net corn export sales totaled .856 mmt, up 130 percent from the previous week.
However, net soybean export sales were down 78 percent from last week, at a total of .400 mmt.
Rail
U.S. Class I railroads originated 18,619 grain carloads for the week ending March 16.
This is a 3 percent decline from the previous week, 22 percent lower than last year, and 18 percent below the 3-year average.
Average April shuttle secondary railcar bids/offers (per car) were $621 above tariff for the week ending March 21.
This is down $50 from last week, but up $165 from last year.
Average non-shuttle secondary railcar bids/offers were $425 above tariff, up $44 from last week.
There were no non-shuttle bids/offers this week last year.
Barge
For the week ending March 23, barge grain movements totaled 697,390 tons.
This is 6 percent higher than the previous week and 29 percent lower than the same period last year.
For the week ending March 23, 428 grain barges moved down river. This is 39 more barges than the previous week.
There were 644 grain barges unloaded in New Orleans, 38 percent higher than the previous week.
Ocean
For the week ending March 21, 34 ocean-going grain vessels were loaded in the Gulf.
This is 3 percent less than the same period last year.
Fifty-eight vessels are expected to be loaded within the next 10 days, 9 percent more than the same period last year.
For the week ending March 21, the ocean freight rate for shipping bulk grain from the Gulf to Japan was $41.00 per metric ton.
This is 3 percent more than the previous week.
The cost of shipping from the PNW to Japan was $23.50 per metric ton. This is 2 percent more than the previous week.
Fuel
For the week ending March 25, the U.S. average diesel fuel price increased to $3.080 per gallon, 1 cent above the previous week’s average and 7 cents above the same week last year.