Death comes to us all. Life's but a walking shadow | Ocean rates from New Orleans to Japan are on the order of $50/MT and from the PNW to Japan are around $30/MT. (USDA Grain Transportation Report 4/27/14). Since the distance from PNW to Japan is about the same as NOLA to the soybean loading ports of Brazil (5000+miles) and the fixed costs of loading and unloading will be similar it should cost about the $30/MT or 81 cents per bushel (3000/36.6). Then you need to move the beans upriver and nothing moves on the railroad for much less than a $1/bu and often much more. Maybe you can barge them upriver to some locations but you still need to unload and get them to the final destination. My guess is it will cost at least $2/bu to move beans from Brazil to the end user here.
And remember it already cost $100 to $150 ton just to move the beans to the Brazilian ports. So beans priced at $15/bu in Chicago are $550/ton minus $220 ($150+70) are $6/bu on the farm in Brazil. It would be interesting to know just what the "at the farm" soybean price is in Brazil.
I don't know where all this is going but it sure is curious. |
Maizing's soybean spread thread continued.
