US weekly ethanol production falls 2% to 1.02 m b/d, stocks up

US weekly ethanol production decreased by 2%, or 24,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 1.02 million b/d in the week ending November 17, according to data published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday.

The decline was due to a loss of 24,000 b/d in production in the Midwest, which is home to over 90% of the country's ethanol production capacity.

Over the week, full production equated to the consumption of 2.63 million mt of corn, down from 2.7 million mt a week earlier.

Meanwhile, ethanol stocks increased by 698,000 barrels to 21.65 million barrels in the period covered by the report.

Margins calculated through a model from Iowa State University showed that the estimated return over operating costs for the average Midwest-based plant decreased by 10 c/gallon to 48 c/gallon in the week ending November 17.

Meanwhile, corn prices for the week moved up by 3 c/bu during the week to an average of $4.70/bu.

Finished ethanol prices lowered by 7 c/gallon to $1.85/gallon.