Ethanol production soars and stocks build despite growing demand

In Washington, DTN reports that Energy Information Administration data shows that despite reaching the highest demand for ethanol in eight weeks last week, ethanol stocks grew by another 423,000 barrels to 24.781 million bbl, more than 4% higher on the year. Stocks in the Midwest region fell, however, by 111,000 bbl as stocks in the Gulf Coast region, typically from where ethanol is exported internationally, rose by 312,000 barrels. All other regions also saw stocks increate. Even with demand growing, ethanol production rose 4.4% on the year to an average of 1.040 million bpd with the four-week average at 1.045 million bpd, more than 400,000 bpd more than last year.