Soybean futures continued to erode this week giving up 14 cents a bushel while corn found modest strength in a 3 cent advance. In the cash market, basis movements were fairly muted this week with US average corn basis gaining 1 cent a bushel while soybeans added 2 cents to the US average spot basis.
In the corn market, ethanol plants as a group were fairly quiet this week, although more strength was apparent in the Eastern Cornbelt of Indiana and Ohio where several plants boosted their spot basis by a nickel. At the Gulf, export premiums were mostly unchanged for the week and a modest drop in barge rates did little to change the overall trend of basis levels at river terminals.
For soybeans, gains were noted at river terminal on Wednesday with some key markets up 5 to 8 cents on the day, but by Thursday those premiums were gone and basis levels ended the week only up 2 cents on average. Gulf basis was up 4 cents on the week. At soybean plants, there has been little movement in recent weeks especially at Western Cornbelt plants were most basis levels have been flat for the past 6 weeks. In Ohio, a few key plants were up 5 to 10 cents a bushel this week.
