Feed additive tracker: Freight rates still on the rise, all eyes on vitamin E market

Vitamins are largely trading sideways with Vitamin C being monitored carefully by food and feed additives traders and vitamin B12 trading slightly softer, it reported.

“Vitamin E, one of the high-quantity ingredients for feed premixes, is showing upside price risk since last week amid market chatter on supposedly lower output of one producer and tactical market purchases of a larger end user exceeding 1,000 metric tons,”​ Stefan Schmidinger, partner, Kemiex, told us.

Amino acids prices are losing momentum: high volatility is being seen in Asia origin products, however, he noted.

Freight costs ​

Looking at transportation challenges, global sea freight rates saw another steep increase from the second half of April on all routes covered, breaking new records, commented Schmidinger.

“Most notably, rates to South America have surged.” ​

Congestion at major European ports is less severe than anticipated since the Suez incident but it may still take another month or two to return to normal levels, he said.

“As freight markets remain constrained, newly arranged long-term contracts are now being closed. It is also being reported that large shippers that were not has hard hit by the significant surge in spot rates over the past year are now being impacted.”​

Air freight rates remain elevated, he said, as long-haul international passenger demand remains at very low level for now and at least until end of 2021, or even longer depending on vaccination efforts.

In more general market developments that potential impact feed additive supply, the US dollar is weakening​​ further against the Chinese Yuan to levels that were last seen in June 2018, found the latest market report from Kemiex.

Regulatory action ​

On the regulation front, the EU recently approved​​ the L-valine of one of the top two China producers of that additive, along with Daesang's L-Histidine​​, noted the analysts.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday this week, the US Department of Commerce announced its affirmative final determination​​ in the anti-dumping duty investigation of methionine from France, submitted by petitioner Novus International Inc. The dumping rate for Adisseo France SAS is determined at 43.82%, and all others at 16.17%. The issuance of orders is expected for July.