Ethanol Blog

Ethanol futures posted extremely strong gains through February. Front-month March futures rallied 46 cents per gallon during the month, helping to set the tone for additional market support and the potential for aggressive renewed buying interest during the rest of the spring.

In comparison to February gains, January increased 7 cents per gallon, December posted an aggressive 14-cent rally, while prices fell 2 cents per gallon in November and gained 1.4 cents per gallon in October.

In the last week alone, front-month ethanol prices rallied 20 cents per gallon.

Price increases have been tightly tied to firming corn prices, as well as weather-related transportation delays that have rail cars stranded in coastal areas and are unable to make it back to ethanol plant locations to get refilled and reshipped. These transportation delays are expected to be worked through over the coming weeks, but with firming corn market support seen late February, fears of higher production costs may keep prices elevated over the future.

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

(ES)

© Copyright 2014 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.