Ethanol plants cutting prices to make up for rising truck freight rates

In Illinois, Platts reports that ethanol plants are having difficulty securing trucks to haul ethanol from plants in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and elsewhere to major hubs for blending and transportation due to competition for truck haulage. Near-record ethanol production has compounded the situation, making it difficult as storage units at facilities fill up without the trucks available to take the fuel away. Demand for trucks is pushing up freight prices, in turn forcing plants to lower FOB prices to six-month lows last week in order to compensate.