Weekly ethanol production up 1.7%, but still 7.6% below same week last year

In Washington, D.C., U.S. ethanol production expanded 1.7%, or 17,000 barrels per day (b/d), to 991,000 b/d—equivalent to 41.62 million gallons daily, according to EIA data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association, but production remained 7.6% below the same week last year.

The four-week average ethanol production rate rose for the ninth straight week, up 0.3% to 979,000 b/d, equivalent to an annualized rate of 15.01 billion gallons (bg).

Ethanol stocks swelled by 4.0% to 22.1 million barrels, which was the largest volume since May and 1.2% above a year-ago. Inventories built across all regions.

The volume of gasoline supplied to the U.S. market, a measure of implied demand, dropped 4.7% to a 27-week low of 7.60 million b/d (116.51 bg annualized). Gasoline demand was 14.4% less than a year ago.

Refiner/blender net inputs of ethanol also fell 4.7% to 755,000 b/d, equivalent to 11.57 bg annualized. This was the lowest volume since May and 12.0% below the year-earlier level as a result of the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Imports of ethanol arriving into the West Coast were 21,000 b/d, or 6.17 million gallons for the week. Imports have been logged in fourteen of the past twenty weeks. (Weekly export data for ethanol is not reported simultaneously; the latest export data is as of October 2020.)