US weekly ethanol production up but remains below 1mn b/d

US weekly ethanol production rose by 99,000 barrels per day in the week ending January 6, according to new data from the Energy Information Administration.

Total ethanol production across the US increased to 943,000 barrels per day (b/d) in the reporting week, up from 844,000 b/d a week earlier.

The weekly total came in just below analyst predictions, which had forecasted a week-on-week increase of 115,000 thousand barrels to 959,000 b/d.

The increase was driven entirely by higher weekly production in the US Midwest, which is home to over 90% of the country's ethanol production capacity.

Over the week, full production equated to the consumption of 2.43 million mt of corn, up from 2.17 million mt a week earlier.

Meanwhile, ethanol stockpiles declined by 644,000 barrels to 23.8 million barrels in the week ending January 6.

The stockpile decline exceeded analyst expectations, which had called for a week-on-week reduction of 130,000 barrels to 24.3 million.

Margins calculated through a model from Iowa State University showed that the estimated return over operating costs for the average Midwest-based plant rose in the week ending January 6 to $0.40/gallon, up from $0.05/gallon a week earlier.

Corn prices for the week meanwhile rose by around $0.63 week-on-week to average $6.70/bu.

Finished ethanol prices were also up in the week ending January 6, landing at $2.20, up from $2.01 a gallon a week earlier.