Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The ports of Alexandria and Dekheila on the Mediterranean in Egypt have reopened after being closed for two days due to bad weather. Ships at berth were allowed to continue loading or discharging but no vessels were allowed to enter or leave the ports. Egypt reports that 1.26 million hectares of wheat have been planted which is up to 86 percent of the targeted planting. This year’s planting target is up by about 10 percent over last year and government officials feel that the target can easily be reached. Egypt’s Suez Canal income in 2019 has hit a new record of $5.8 billion up 1.3 percent from 2018. 18,880 vessels used the canal carrying 1.2 billion tons of cargo – a...
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Dry bulk markets were volatile but ultimately steady this week with notable differences in rate developments across vessel classes. The Capesize sector, which led the recent rally in freight rates with its dramatic surge, pulled back slightly amid more cautious chartering activity, partic...
Key Market Insights Macro markets delivered a full whipsaw today. Early in the session, crude oil had rallied back above $100/barrel as traders priced renewed concern over the U.S.-Iran standoff and potential supply risk through the Strait of Hormuz. That strength helped pull grains off their o...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.