Despite Negative Operating Margins, Ethanol Producers Increase Production

WASHINGTON, DC – Weekly ethanol production inched higher last week but still remains below levels just one year ago. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), production hit 41.8 million gallons daily, an increase of 2.6 percent from the previous week, while remaining 2.7 percent below the same week a year ago and 4.1 percent below the level two years ago. Ethanol stocks dropped 3.2 percent and fell to the second-smallest level in over a year. Inventories are almost 11 percent lower than last year. Interestingly enough, imports of ethanol arriving on the West Coast were 8.23 million gallons for the week. This is the first time in four weeks that EIA has reported ethanol imports. The volume of gasoline supplied to the U.S. market eclipsed a 6-week high of 402.8 million gallons per day. Conversely, refiner/blender net inputs of ethanol narrowed to 14.23 million gallons per day. Ethanol, as a percentage of total daily gasoline demand, climbed to just under 10.4 percent.