Ethanol production down but still hits 33-week high

In Washington, D.C., ethanol production averaged 1.072 million barrels per day (b/d)—or 45.02 million gallons daily, —as plants cut back by 27,000 b/d (2.5%) from the week before, according to government data released and analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association. Still, the four-week average for ethanol production reached a 33-week high of 1.077 million b/d for an annualized rate of 16.51 billion gallons. Stocks of ethanol were 23.0 million barrels. That is a 0.4% gain from last week and the largest reserves in 21 weeks. There were zero imports recorded for the 36th week in a row. (The latest export data is as of June 2018.)

Average weekly gasoline demand expanded 1.8% to 399.5 million gallons (9.512 million barrels) daily. This is equivalent to 145.82 billion gallons annualized. Refiner/blender input of ethanol increased 0.7% to 948,000 b/d, equivalent to 14.53 billion gallons annualized. The ethanol content in gasoline supplied to the market averaged 9.97%, down from 10.07% the previous week. Expressed as a percentage of daily gasoline demand, daily ethanol production decreased to 11.27%.