Ethanol may be key to helping restore China-US trade imbalance

In Washington, Reuters reports that the ethanol industry got good news from China who is seeking to reduce its trade imbalance with the US and is looking to ethanol as well as LNG to offset the disparity. With the country set to implement a 10% ethanol blending mandate from 2020 and refiners already ramping up blending ahead of that date, demand was assumed to soar until Beijing slapped an additional 15% import duty on ethanol imports earlier this year. Ethanol exports to China could eventually reach $7 billion as part of the trade imbalance drawdown.