News

U.S. ethanol production, stocks down

U.S. ethanol production declined last week and stocks got a little tighter.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says production averaged 1.046 million barrels a day, down 23,000 on the week, with some plants restricting hours because of poor margins. The Renewable Fuels Association says the four-week average for production is now 1.051 million barrels per day, 3.0% less than this time last year.

The USDA earlier in the week reduced its corn for ethanol use estimate because of slower than expected first quarter production, the first year to year decline in first quarter production since 2012, lowering the guess 50 million bushels from November’s projection to 5.6 billion.

Stocks were down 140,000 barrels on the week at 22.89 million.

The next set of supply and demand estimates is out in January.