GoodFuels

Early Christmas for Ethanol Producers

The Wall Street Journal is calling it “Christmas in October for Ethanol” and the forecast does seem to indicate a cheery holiday season for the industry.

Ethanol producers have been seeing some pretty good profit margins lately, especially compared to last year at this time. Last week, ethanol processing margins nearly doubled to a dollar a bushel. Since early July, ethanol futures on the Chicago Board of Trade have increased more than 20%, while corn futures have only gone up about five percent.

Commodity analyst Joe Victor of Allendale, Inc says that profitability has returned to the ethanol industry. “We know that over the past three months that there is profit returning, above and beyond all costs. Ethanol companies are turning a profit over the past three months.”

Proof of that is more ethanol plants returning to production. Ethanol Producer Magazine reports that the number of plants idled has decreased from 36 in the spring to 24 this fall. The publication’s latest plant map shows total U.S. ethanol production capacity is nearly 12 billion gallons.

This is all great news, but what producers are really hoping for is a nice early Christmas present from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is due to rule on the industry request allowing gasoline blends to contain up to 15 percent ethanol by December 1. That would make for a very Merry Christmas in Ethanol Land.