Soummam, Algeria’s largest private buyer, closed the recent 12.5k mt milk powder tender, composed of 5,000 mt skimmed milk powder (SMP) and 7,500 mt whole milk powder (WMP) on 13th April, following several days of aggressive bidding from dairy producers and traders across the globe. The first SMP bids on the tender were reported at around €2,450/CFR Algeria last week. Several EU contacts confirmed that the tender closed on SMP prices between €2,150-2,250/EXW EU. Furthermore, it was reported that some Canadian volumes have been booked with old derogations still valid for Soummam at $2,500/CFR Algeria. Both US and European market sources were surprised by the aggressive bidding for the tender. One EU-based trader commented, “the prices are extremely low for June/July period. We expected to see competitive prices but not at these levels.” A US-based source added, “SMP at €2,200 EXW, with the freight advantage from Europe, the US had to be very aggressive to get some volume, low price offerings from EU competition surprised us and moved us out of the tender.”
While SMP volumes were reported to largely come out of Europe and to a smaller extant out of North America, WMP has been reportedly largely supplied out of New Zealand. However, no details surrounding WMP price levels have been reported thus far.