Pacific Ethanol realigns focus to specialty alcohols

In California, Pacific Ethanol announced the company’s strategic realignment to focus on specialty alcohols and essential ingredients as well as its intent to change its corporate name. The company also announced the pricing of a $75 million equity offering and released certain preliminary results for the three months ended September 30, 2020.

Over the past nine months, the company increased production of specialty alcohols used in consumer products and reduced fuel grade ethanol production. The company’s production mix shifted from approximately 85% fuel grade ethanol and 15% specialty alcohols used in consumer products during 2019, to approximately 50% each for the three months ended September 30, 2020. Excluding sales of third-party ethanol marketed by the company’s Kinergy subsidiary, specialty alcohols used in consumer products contributed approximately 45% of the company’s revenues during the first nine months of 2020, compared with only 15% for all of 2019. Specialty alcohols used in consumer products sell at a premium to fuel grade ethanol and require systems, processes and certifications to produce them that are not required for fuel grade ethanol.