US ethanol production stable, stocks fall by 365,000 barrels: EIA

US ethanol production data suggests the US chewed through over 100 million bushels of corn in the week ending March 30, with production levels stable at 1.038 million barrels of ethanol per day, the EIA said Wednesday.

That was a fall of 1,000 b/d versus the previous week, but nearly 20,000 b/d higher for the same period last year.

Along with stable production, stocks also saw a modest reduction with 365,000 barrels pulled to cut stock levels to 22.4 million barrels, some 1.2 million barrels below levels seen at the end of March 2017.

With East Coast stocks increasing slightly and Midwest stocks seeing a modest decline, the bulk of the movement came from US Gulf stocks, which dropped by around half a million barrels.

Similarly, East Coast production levels kicked up by 3,000 b/d to 30,000 b/d, while US Gulf production fell by the same level to 26,000 b/d.

The US is currently averaging production of approximately 108 million bushels a week in the current marketing year, putting it on course to exceed the 5.575 billion bushels that the USDA is expecting the industry to consume in 2017/18.

If maintained, the final grind could top 5.75 billion bushels.