Grain Transportation Overview by Sector: 4/11/19

This article has been reprinted from the April 11 USDA Grain Transportation Report.

Export Sales

For the week ending March 28, unshipped balances of wheat, corn, and soybeans totaled 32.9 mmt.

This indicates an 11 percent decrease in outstanding sales, compared to the same time last year.

Net weekly wheat export sales were .705 mmt, up 48 percent from the previous week.

Net corn export sales totaled .537 mmt, down 41 percent from the previous week.

However, net soybean export sales totaled 1.97 mmt, up significantly from the past week.

Rail

U.S. Class I railroads originated 22,565 grain carloads for the week ending March 30.

This is a 2 percent increase from the previous week, 6 percent lower than last year, and 2 percent below the 3-year average.

Average April shuttle secondary railcar bids/offers (per car) were $606 above tariff for the week ending April 4.

This is up $266 from last week and $131 above last year.

There were no non-shuttle bids/offers this week.

Barge

For the week ending April 6, barge grain movements totaled 504,987 tons.

This is 27 percent lower than the previous week and 20 percent lower than the same period last year.

For the week ending April 6, 330 grain barges moved down river.

This is 71 less barges than the previous week.

There were 469 grain barges unloaded in New Orleans, 28 percent lower than the previous week.

Ocean

For the week ending April 4, 30 ocean-going grain vessels were loaded in the Gulf.

This is 17 percent less than the same period last year.

Fortyfour vessels are expected to be loaded within the next 10 days, 20 percent less than the same period last year.

For the week ending April 4, the ocean freight rate for shipping bulk grain from the Gulf to Japan was $42.00 per mt.

This is 1 percent more than the previous week.

The cost of shipping from the PNW to Japan is unchanged from the previous week, at $23.75 per mt.

Fuel

For the week ending April 8, the U.S. average diesel fuel price increased to $3.093 per gallon, 1.5 cents above the previous week’s average and 5 cents above the same week last year.