Abengoa Bioenergy Temporarily Idles Production at New Mexico Ethanol Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation (Chesterfield, Missouri) and subsidiary Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation - Portales (Portales, New Mexico) have decided to idle production for the short-term at a fuel ethanol plant in Portales.

What seems to be a growing trend in the ethanol market, low ethanol process and high feedstock prices are squeezing profit margins to a point where the current environment does not make it profitable to operate an ethanol plant. The company has not indicated when operations would restart, except that it could be "a couple of months" before production resumes.

Abengoa acquired the then-15 million-gallon-per-year corn- and milo-based feedstock plant from High Plains Corporation in 2002, along with two other plants. In October 2005, Abengoa expanded the plant to its currently capacity of 30 million gallons per year.

The plant is one of the older ethanol plants in the U.S., starting up in 1985. It had a similar problem in March 1996 and had to shut down operations until grain prices improved. The company started mothballing procedures on Thursday, October 30, 2008, and doesn't plan to restart the plant until market conditions improve.

Abengoa SA (MCE:ABG) (Seville, Spain) the parent company of Abengoa Bioenergy, currently has four fuel ethanol plants operating in the U.S. The plants are located in York, Nebraska; Colwich, Kansas; Portales, New Mexico; and Ravenna, Nebraska; and have a combined capacity of 198 million gallons per year.

The company has additional plans to build plants in Mount Vernon, Indiana; Wichita, Kansas; and a cellulosic-based plant in Hugoton, Kansas. Abroad, biofuel plants are being built in San Roque, Spain; and Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 177 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 145 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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