Ethanol weekly production hits 3-year high, stocks rise: EIA

Total US ethanol production continued to rise above the 1 million b/d mark in the week ending October 15, posting the highest daily figure since the week of August 3, 2018, data published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday.

The production rose a little over 6% to 1.1 million b/d, up from 1.03 million b/d a week earlier and making it the joint third biggest production figure since the agency began publishing data in the week of June 4, 2010.

Levels for the week ending October 15 reported by the EIA once again exceeded analyst expectations, which called for a week-on-week increase of 10,000-20,000 barrels.

Over the week, full production equated to consumption of around 2.82 million mt of corn.

Unlike last week, ethanol stock levels also moved up for the week to 20.08 million barrels, compared with 19.85 million barrels a week earlier.

The figure crushed analyst expectations for stock levels to remain unchanged or move down to 100,000 barrels less.

Margins, calculated with a model from Iowa State University, showed that estimated running costs for the average Midwest-based plant rose once again this week to $0.72 cents per gallon, up from $0.66 a week earlier.

Corn prices continued to fall for the week averaging $5.07/bu, down 15 cents from levels of $5.22/bu recorded a week earlier.

Meanwhile, finished ethanol prices rose 1 cent week-on-week to $2.33/gallon.