US ethanol production down 24k b/d, stocks build: EIA

The US ethanol industry produced 1.044 million barrels a day in the week ending February 23, data from the Energy Information Administration showed Wednesday.

That’s a 24,000 b/d fall on the previous week’s performance, but remains seasonally strong versus February 2017, when production for the month averaged 1.04 million barrels.

Currently, February production is averaging 1.046 million b/d.

However, stocks also built to take ethanol in tank to 23 million barrels with the bulk of the build in the PADD 2 and 3 regions – the US Midwest and Gulf Coast.

That was partly offset by a draw in stocks from PADD 1, the East Coast.

The Midwest and the East Coast also led the way in lower production rates, with production in the US Gulf stepping up from 23,000 b/d to 30,000 b/d.

As a major user of corn, implied corn consumption remained on par to surpass the 5.525 billion bushels that the USDA currently has earmarked for ethanol usage with production amounting to around 109 million bushels of corn for the week.