World dairy prices up 2.4pc overnight (+graphic)

A milk tanker leaves the Te Rapa Fonterra Dairy Factory. Photo / Christine Cornege

Prices of dairy products rose in the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, paced by whole and skim milk powder, the biggest products by volume, while overall volumes stabilised.

The GDT Price Index, previously known as the GDT-TWI Price Index, rose 2.4 per cent compared to the last sale two weeks ago. The average winning price was US$4,980 a tonne compared to US$4,880 a tonne.

The average winning price of whole milk powder rose 2.3 per cent to US$5,183096 a tonne and skim milk powder gained 3.9 per cent to US$4,491 a tonne. They account for about 80 per cent of all products sold through the platform, based on the latest volume figures available, for the July 2 sale.

It is the first auction since Fonterra posted its annual results last week and warned of a challenging first half in the current year with "significantly lower" earnings because of high input costs, with prices of milk powder outpacing gains in cheese and casein.

In the overnight auction, cheddar rose 2.3 per cent to $4,389 a tonne and rennet casein fell 0.8 per cent to $9,753 a tonne.

The total volume of dairy products sold at the latest auction slipped to 45,253 tonnes from 46,664 tonnes two weeks ago.

The price of anhydrous milk fat rose 2.7 per cent to US$5,062 a tonne and butter milk powder rose 2.7 per cent to US$4,695 a tonne. Butter rose 0.1 per cent to US$3,915 a tonne.

Milk protein concentrate fell 3.9 per cent to US$7,279 a tonne.

There were 114 winning bidders over 13 rounds. There were 195 participating bidders out of a total number of qualified bidders of 886.