Chinese ethanol exports to Asia may become viable this week

In China, the arbitrage has flipped to the point where rather than importing vast quantities of ethanol from the US, domestically-produced ethanol may now be viable for export around Asia including to South Korea as soon as this past weekend. Ethanol prices in the region based on the Philippines benchmark based on US ethanol export availability have been rising as have South Korean prices, based on higher Brazilian ethanol prices and a lack of Pakistani export availability. Low corn prices in China as the government clears out its stockpiles have helped to pressure ethanol prices to the point of export viability.