US ethanol production and stockpiles move higher week-on-week

US ethanol production rose by 4,000 barrels per day in the week ending January 20 while stockpiles climbed by over 1 million barrels, data published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed Wednesday.

Total ethanol production across the US increased to 1.012 million b/d in the reporting week, up from 1.008 b/d a week earlier.

The weekly gain landed below analyst predictions, which had forecasted a week-on-week increase to be up 6,000 thousand barrels to 1.014 million b/d.

Over the week, full production equated to the consumption of 2.61 million mt of corn, up from 2.6 million mt a week earlier.

Ethanol stockpiles also moved up from the prior week by 1.67 million barrels to 25.08 million barrels in the period covered by the report.

The stockpile increase was much greater than analysts had expected, where outlooks had projected stocks to be up around 235,000 barrels to 23.637 million barrels.

Margins calculated through a model from Iowa State University showed that the estimated return over operating costs for the average Midwest-based plant advanced in the week ending January 20 to $0.32/gallon, up from $0.20/gallon a week earlier.

Corn prices for the week declined by around $0.13 week-on-week to average $6.86/bu.

Meanwhile, finished ethanol prices moved up in the week ending January 20, landing at $2.19, compared to $2.13 last week.