As noted yesterday, global wheat consumption has been growing faster than the expansion in production. Sometimes it takes non-agricultural researchers to look at an issue in a different way. Petroleum engineers at the Colorado School of Mines studied global areas where the loss of sub-surface supports are causing the surface areas to collapse. They identified a stretch of Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia and the North China Plain where the occurrence of subsidence is particularly acute. However, the areas impacted are not from the removal of underground petroleum reserves but rather the loss of ground water. The issue is particularly problematic for Iran where wheat production year to year is quite volatile. Output dropped 2 MMT this ye...
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.
What You Need to Know Today: Wholesale inflation was flat in July, with the Producer Price Index (PPI) unchanged versus expectations for a 0.2 percent increase. Core PPI rose 0.2 percent, also below expectations. The softer inflation data has reduced the odds of a September interest rate incre...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk freight markets are higher this week as activity in Asia and off the ECSA picks up. President Trump extended the Jones Act waiver for another 90 days this week, allowing foreign-flagged vessels to transport oil and other goods between U.S. ports. A container...