Dairy prices lift in the NZX Derivatives market

Trading was brisk in the NZX Dairy Derivatives market today with whole milk powder (WMP) futures will supported.   The majority of the trading activity was centered around the monthly WMP Futures contracts for the October 2013 to January 2014 period.  Prices for these contracts jumped up by US$150 to US$200 per tonne.    WMP Futures contracts are priced from US$4965 per tonne for the nearby contract with prices steadily decreasing through to US$4550/tonne for the January 2014 contracts.  The January 2014 contract is the furtherest contract that has traded to date, although there were both bids and offers on the table today for WMP futures right through to April 2014. There was also demand for the skim milk powder (SMP) futures and the anhydrous milkfat (AMF) futures today.  Both these commodities also traded at higher prices today.   The volume of whole milk powder Fonterra plans to offer on GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) during the final quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2014 is considerably less than what was offered at the same time last season.  This may have had some bearing on the NZX Futures market as the final settlement prices for the contracts are derived from GDT prices.  In the period from Oct 2013 to Jan 2014 Fonterra plans to offer 184,500 tonnes of WMP on GDT, 28% less than during the same time period a year ago.   Open Interest in WMP Futures now stands at 4,456 lots, SMP Futures is at 5,030 lots, whilst AMF stands at 1605 lots.