This article has been reprinted from the Feb. 18 USDA Grain Transportation Report.
Export Sales
For the week ending April 4, unshipped balances of wheat, corn, and soybeans totaled 31.5 mmt.
This indicates a 14 percent decrease in outstanding sales, compared to the same time last year.
Net weekly wheat export sales were .273 mmt, down 61 percent from the previous week.
Net corn export sales totaled .548 mmt, up 2 percent from the previous week.
Net soybean export sales totaled .270 mmt, down 86 percent from the past week.
Rail
U.S. Class I railroads originated 21,815 grain carloads for the week ending April 6.
This is a 3 percent decrease from the previous week, 14 percent lower than last year, and 4 percent below the 3-year average.
Average April shuttle secondary railcar bids/offers (per car) were $242 above tariff for the week ending April 11.
This is down $365 from last week and $458 below last year. Average non-shuttle secondary railcar bids/offers were $600 above tariff.
There were no nonshuttle bids/offers last week or this week last year.
Barge
For the week ending April 13, barge grain movements totaled 428,581 tons.
This is 15 percent lower than the previous week and 31 percent lower than the same period last year.
For the week ending April 13, 265 grain barges moved down river.
This is 65 less barges than the previous week.
There were 524 grain barges unloaded in New Orleans, 12 percent higher than the previous week.
Ocean
For the week ending April 11, 28 ocean-going grain vessels were loaded in the Gulf.
This was 30 percent less than the same period last year.
Fifty-seven vessels are expected to be loaded within the next 10 days, unchanged from the same period last year.
Fuel
For the week ending April 15, the U.S. average diesel fuel price increased to $3.118 per gallon, 2.5 cents above the previous week’s average and 1.4 cents above the same week last year.