Green Plains expects 4B gallons of ethanol production to come offline by end-April

In Iowa, Bloomberg reports that Green Plains expects as much as 4 billion gallons of ethanol production to come offline by the end of April, twice as much as the Renewable Fuels Association predicted would shut down by the end of March. With oil prices falling to $20 a barrel and COVID-19 keeping drivers off the road, smaller ethanol plants and those with heavy debt burdens not just in the US but also in Brazil and potentially elsewhere may not reopen even when the market swings back into positive margins.