Thursday February 27, 2020
- Grains opened lower again this morning due to Coronavirus spreading outside of China. The US also confirmed its first case of COVID-19 transmitted to a person who had not traveled outside the country
- China is starting to clear up the container shipment backlog cutting down the diverted shipments by more than half
- Ethanol production reached its second highest weekly level since 2012 with cumulative production reaching just behind last years levels with the pace increasing
- US changed the bio-fuel waiver program which means fewer refineries will receive waivers going forward pushing renewable fuel prices higher
- Current planting pace suggests about 30% of the corn crop in Brazil will be planted late with the final 20% being very late dependent on the next few weeks weather forecast
- The Canadian rail blockade have cost the Canadian economy an estimated $63 million dollars per week
- shipments have been about a 500k tonnes behind normal for the past 4 weeks
- Crude oil continues to trend lower bringing a sharp decline in the CAD
- Grain futures are having a hard time sustaining any short rally or even current prices with the pressure from the spreading COVID-19. Not helping is the weak export pace with Brazil dominating the soybean market