NASS data are now available for eight consecutive quarters, or since July-September 2014, when NASS took over quarterly compilations from the North American Millers’ Association (NAMA).
While the two 2016 quarters and all the 2015 data were compiled by NASS, for 2014 only the third and fourth quarters came from NASS. January-June data originated from NAMA’s panel of the largest U.S. milling companies and subsequently interpolation by World Grain’s sister publication, Milling & Baking News, to make the data comparable with earlier statistics compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Along with the first-quarter record, January-June flour output aggregated 207.876 million cwts, down 0.2% from 208.220 million in the first half of 2015. It also was down 0.9% from the high of 209.748 million in the first half of 2014.
U.S. flour milling’s 24-hour capacity in April-June was 1.613 million cwts, down from 1.614 million in the first and the record 1.621 million a year back. In the only revision of prior data, the first-quarter capacity was marked off a rounded 4,000 cwts.
Flour mill operating rate in April-June averaged 83.7% of six-day capacity, up slightly from 83.6% in the first quarter but down from 84.2% in April-June 2015.
Wheat grind in the second quarter totaled 224.780 million bus, up 0.3% from 224.212 million in the first 2016 quarter but down 1.2% from 227.452 million a year ago.
Millfeed output in April-June totaled 1.616 million tons, up 1.2% from 1.596 million tons in the first but down 1.7% from 1.643 million a year ago.
Durum semolina production included in the flour output figures in April-June totaled 7.431 million cwts, compared with 7.709 million in the first quarter and 7.072 million a year ago.
Rye flour production in the second totaled 306,000 cwts, against 266,000 in the first and 250,000 a year earlier.
