Weekly Animal Nutrition Round Up

May 1 2024

These industry insights are produced by the Feedinfo market analyst team and brought to you by Mintec. They are available weekly to customers, along with extensive pricing intelligence, news coverage, and scientific information hosted on the Feedinfo platform

Asia

- Chinese vitamin manufacturer Zhejiang Medicine Co announced that a minor explosion occurred at its carotenoid intermediate production workshop on 28 April
- Most Chinese vitamin A and E producers stopped offering publicly following news of the ZMC incident
- Vitamin B3 prices firmed due to rising prices for beta-picoline – a key raw material – as farm demand for herbicide was weak, which caused a shortage of 3-cyanopyrdine
- Lysine HCl export prices were down amid low enquiries, although supply was tight

Europe

- Methionine prices continued to weaken on good market coverage

- Tryptophan prices eased down; supply was still tight but Q2 coverage was sufficient

- Vitamin E 50% spot prices are at their highest level so far this year across all regions as sources report scarcity of material

North America

- Truckloads of methionine were indicated higher at $2.95-3.00/kg, up from $2.90-2.95/kg
- Importers are braced for a surge in ocean freight costs, prompting re-evaluations of shipping strategy; traders suggested that some shipments might be delayed or cancelled
- Vitamin E offers increased to $9.15-9.45/kg, but there were no confirmed deals at this level
- North American buyers are adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ stance on amino acids and vitamins amid market caution

South America

- Methionine narrowed to $3.00-3.10/kg last week as the market cooled after Sumitomo announced its exit from Latin America earlier in the month
- Offers on tryptophan were volatile due to cheaper local material competing with importers and resellers
- Vitamin E prices were assessed up amid consistently higher offers from producers; flat demand prevented any significant impact on prices
- Increased import volumes of chemicals and cars increased freight rates and lengthened transit times from China to Brazil by up to 90 days