European Commission to monitor ethanol imports for a year following anomalies

In Belgium, ePure says the European Commission’s decision to introduce surveillance measures on imports of renewable ethanol for fuel from third countries is an important step towards preventing a surge in imports from causing further injury to the EU renewable ethanol industry.

The decision, taken at the initiative of France and supported by an overwhelming majority of Member States, follows an action from the European renewable ethanol industry. It will allow a close monitoring of the volume of fuel ethanol imports into the Union, which will facilitate a prompt and effective reaction in case the threat related to increased imports materializes.

EU renewable ethanol producers raised the issue in the context of a trade situation that has gone from worrying to worse due to the COVID-19 market disturbances. Even before the pandemic radically altered global fuel and commodities markets, imports of renewable ethanol for fuel into the EU had sharply increased since 2017, from 87,600 metric tons to 536,200 tons in 2019, i.e. an increase of 512%. They have rapidly gained a significant market share during the past three years, from 2% in 2017 to 14% in Q1 2020. The European renewable ethanol industry is currently keeping under review the conditions under which renewable fuel ethanol for fuel from certain countries is imported into the EU.