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Weekly ethanol production stays close to recent highs

U.S. ethanol production declined slightly over the past week, but still held near the recent highs.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says production averaged 1.054 million barrels a day, down 3,000 on the week, but above 1.05 million a day for the third week in a row. That’s also the fifth week in a row with an average of more than a million barrels a day, with production fueled by the relatively low price and large available supply of corn, despite uncertainties about Trump administration policy on the ethanol portion of the Renewable Fuels Standard. Domestic stocks were up 152,000 barrels on the week at 21.497 million.

The USDA expects U.S. ethanol production to consume nearly 5.475 billion bushels of corn this marketing year, with runs through August 2018. During the 2016/17 marketing year, consumption was 5.439 billion bushels and 2015/16 consumption totaled 5.224 billion.