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
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¢).
Further Reading
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