US ethanol producers seen heading towards consolidation

In Iowa, ethanol producers are on the hunt to boost scale and improve efficiency thanks to improved margins that give them the wiggle room to make required investments. That trend also includes consolidations, as demonstrated by moves to buy up Abengoa’s US ethanol assets as well as HC2 Holdings looking to take over The Andersons’ biofuels arm. The expectation is that the larger a producer is, the easier it can withstand future shocks like those experienced earlier in the year.