Grain Transportation Overview by Sector: 1/16/20

This article has been reprinted from the Jan. 16 USDA Grain Transportation Report.

Export Sales

For the week ending January 2, unshipped balances of wheat, corn, and soybeans totaled 21.9 mmt.

This represented a 29-percent decrease in outstanding sales, compared to the same time last year.

Net corn export sales reached 0.162 mmt, down 70 percent from the past week.

Net soybean export sales were 0.356 mmt, down 8 percent from the previous week.

Net weekly wheat export sales reached 0.081 mmt, down 74 percent from the previous week.

Rail

U.S. Class I railroads originated 19,615 grain carloads during the week ending January 4.

This is a 26-percent increase from the previous week, 4 percent less than last year, and 5 percent lower than the 3-year average.

Average January shuttle secondary railcar bids/offers (per car) were $506 below tariff for the week ending January 9.

This is $90 less than last week and $198 lower than this week last year.

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

Barge

For the week ending January 11, barge grain movements totaled 521,129 tons.

This was a 1.4-percent decrease from the previous week and 7 percent less than the same period last year.

For the week ending January 11, 325 grain barges moved down river—28 fewer than the previous week.

There were 807 grain barges unloaded in New Orleans, 17 percent more than the previous week.

Ocean

For the week ending January 9, 34 oceangoing grain vessels were loaded in the Gulf—unchanged from the same period last year.

Within the next 10 days (starting January 10), 46 vessels were expected to be loaded—25.8 percent fewer than the same period last year.

As of January 9, the rate for shipping a metric ton (mt) of grain from the U.S. Gulf to Japan was $45.00.

This was 2 percent less than the previous week.

The rate from PNW to Japan was $24.25 per mt, 3 percent less than the previous week.

Fuel

For the week ending January 13, the U.S. average diesel fuel price decreased 1.5 cents from the previous week to $3.064 per gallon, 8.8 cents above the same week last year.