US ethanol production climbs 5%, stocks shed 100,000 barrels

US ethanol production climbed in the week ending February 16, adding 52,000 barrels a day to hit 1.068 million barrels a day, data from the EIA showed Thursday.

Alongside that, ethanol stocks fell 100,000 barrels to 22.8 million barrels.

That means corn consumption for ethanol production continues to hold around 110 million bushels a week, based on a ratio of 2.8 gallons of ethanol from each bushel ingested.

That means just under half of the USDA’s current 5.525 billion bushel projection for corn in this marketing year has been consumed.

The bulk of the production increase came in the Midwest PADD 2, which added 50,000 barrels a day in production.

Stocks in PADD 1, East Coast, and PADD 2 rose but were offset by a substantial draw in Gulf Coast barrels, which declined by nearly half a million barrels to 3.54 million barrels.