Dairy product prices up

Thursday 17th January 2013

Prices of dairy products rose in Fonterra's latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, the third straight increase since a drop in early December, led by whole milk powder and anhydrous milk fat.

The GDT-TWI Price Index rose 1.1 percent compared to the last sale two weeks ago. The average winning price rose to US$3,442 a metric tonne. Whole milk powder, the biggest product by volume, was up to 2.8 percent on the average of all contracts offered to US$3,288 a tonne and AMF rose 2.4 percent to US$3,253 a tonne.

The sale comes ahead of next Monday's debut inclusion of the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund in the NZX 50 Index. The units have been climbing in anticipation of that event, up from $7.31 to $7.49 since last week's announcement, closing yesterday at a new record of $7.49.

Today's sales give unitholders an update on global pricing of Fonterra's products and may be reflected in the units when they resume trading today on the NZX and ASX.

The total volume sold was 40,418 tonnes from 45,252 tonnes a fortnight ago.

There were significant falls in prices for butter milk powder, down 6.5 percent to US$3,405 per tonne, and milk protein concentrate, down 2 percent to US$5,995 per tonne.

Rennet casein rose 0.8 percent to US$8,479 a tonne and cheddar was up 0.9 percent to US$3,496 a tonne. Skim milk powder fell 0.3 percent to US$3,552 a tonne.

There were 144 winning bidders over 12 rounds. There were 202 participating bidders out of a total number of qualified bidders of 748.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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