CME: Cheese stocks Built in December

US - Blocks and barrels traded below $1.51 for the first time in exactly a year. Blocks were off 9¢ last week, barrels off 4.75¢, writes Alan Levitt.

23 January 2012

1 minute read

North America

Milk futures were mixed friay, but still finished the week in the red. The FEB-MAY contracts were off 63¢ from last Friday. Cheese futures were down 5.4¢ in FEB-MAY.

Whey futures were higher friday, but still finished negative for the week. Butter futures were off 3.7¢ this week in the FEB-SEP contracts.

NDM futures for 2012 were down 0.8¢ for the week.

The Class I base price for February is $17.03, down $1.77 from January and the lowest since February 2011.

American cheese stocks expanded by 16.7 million lbs. in December (the most in six years), suggesting slower consumption during the month.

On 31 December, inventories were 600.7 million lbs., up 7.4 per cent from the five-year average (see chart). Butter inventories ended the year at 105.2 million lbs., down 12 per cent from the five-year average, according to USDA’s “Cold Storage” report released Friday afternoon.

NASS dairy product prices for the week ending 14 January: cheddar blocks $1.5724 (-0.86¢ vs. the prior week); barrels $1.6081 (+0.45¢); butter $1.5828 (-1.87¢); nonfat dry milk $1.4151 (-0.11¢); dry whey 70.20¢ (+2.29¢).