Ethanol Blog

Data released Wednesday morning reported that total ethanol production slipped an additional 210,000 gallons per day from the previous week. Total production the last week of January is listed at 37.6 million gallons per day.

This level continues to outpace year-ago production levels, currently 15.6% over production at this time in 2013.

Plant margins remain positive, but the recent growth in production and inventory levels has created price pressure in the ethanol market while corn prices have risen over the last several weeks.

Overall demand for both RBOB gasoline and ethanol remains seasonally sluggish, but this is was expected and is likely to shift higher during the next four months. The main question facing the market is just how much additional price support will be seen in corn prices. This will have direct impacts on ethanol production margins, and also will continue to direct inventory levels from week to week.

Rick Kment can be reached at rick.kment@dtn.com

(ES/)

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