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

Export Sales

For the week ending June 27, unshipped balances of wheat, corn, and soybeans totaled 21.9 mmt.

This indicates a 12 percent decrease in outstanding sales, compared to the same time last year.

Net corn export sales reached .176 mmt, down 40 percent from the previous week.

Net soybean export sales totaled .868 mmt, up significantly from the past week.

Net weekly wheat export sales reached .276 mmt, down 55 percent from the from the previous week.

Rail

U.S. Class I railroads originated 20,955 grain carloads for the week ending June 29.

This is an 8 percent decrease from the previous week, 11 percent lower than last year, and 10 percent below the 3-year average.

Average July shuttle secondary railcar bids/offers (per car) were $42 above tariff for the week ending July 4.

This is $137 more than last week and $333 less than last year.

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

Barge

For the week ending July 6, barge grain movements totaled 779,876 tons.

This is a 5 percent increase from the previous week and 33 percent lower than the same period last year.

For the week ending July 6, 489 grain barges moved down river.

This is 20 more barges than the previous week.

There were 434 grain barges unloaded in New Orleans, 16 percent more than the previous week.

Ocean

For the week ending July 4, 26 ocean-going grain vessels were loaded in the Gulf.

This is 8 percent more than the same period last year. Forty-one vessels are expected to be loaded within the next 10 days.

This is 2 percent fewer than the same period last year. As of July 4, the rate for shipping a metric ton (mt) of grain from the U.S. Gulf to Japan was $44.50.

This is 3 percent more than the previous week.

The rate from the PNW to Japan was $24.25 per mt; 2 percent more than the previous week.

Fuel

For the week ending July 8, the U.S. average diesel fuel price increased 1.3 cents from the previous week, to $3.055 per gallon.

This price is 18.8 cents less than the same week last year.