Whole milk powder (WMP) futures contracts between March and June have eased. The March contract eased the most, by US$95/t on Friday. The March and April contracts are trading at a discount to the February contract, indicating that WMP prices are likely to decline further before improving with the start of the new season in June. The February WMP futures contract is currently at US$1830/t and drops to US$1755/t for the March contract.
Skim milk powder (SMP) futures also eased a little on Friday, with the March contract again declining the most at US$80/t.
Anhydrous milkfat and butter futures have similarly eased. Most contracts until October have lost value for these products.
Friday again saw a higher number of transactions taking place, with 22 trades. The volume that changed hands was also higher than it has been for a while, with 1355t traded on-market and 400t off-market (which took place in two block trades). A number of the WMP contracts that were traded had some higher volumes, of more than 100t each. There was one trade for the March 2016 contract of 500t.
The remainder of Friday’s trades were for SMP, but these were mainly for small volumes.
There were just 5 trades yesterday, all for WMP. Three of the trades were for 100t of product each.
