US ethanol production drops, stocks down

In Washington, according to EIA data, ethanol production averaged 863,000 barrels per day (b/d) — or 36.25 million gallons daily. That is down 22,000 b/d from the week before. The four-week average for ethanol production stood at 876,000 b/d for an annualized rate of 13.43 billion gallons.

Stocks of ethanol stood at 15.4 million barrels. That is a 5.2% decrease from last week and the lowest since EIA began reporting weekly data in 2010. Imports of ethanol were zero b/d, down from last week. Gasoline demand for the week averaged 390.3 million gallons daily — the highest level since early August 2012. Refiner/blender input of ethanol hit a record level of 887,000 b/d. Expressed as a percentage of daily gasoline demand, daily ethanol production was 9.29%. On the co-products side, ethanol producers were using 13.085 million bushels of corn to produce ethanol and 96,313 metric tons of livestock feed, 85,864 metric tons of which were distillers grains. The rest is comprised of corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal. Additionally, ethanol producers were providing 4.49 million pounds of corn oil daily.