Altra Biofuels Closes Down Indiana Ethanol Plant; Additional Plants Could Follow

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Investor-owned AltraBiofuels Incorporated (Los Angeles, California) and its wholly owned subsidiary Altra Indiana LLC (Cloverdale, Indiana) will indefinitely lay off employees and close the doors to the $170 million, 92 million-gallon-per-year Cloverdale, Indiana, fuel ethanol plant, which completed construction in May.

Even with corn prices stabilizing, the financial crisis has taken a toll on the ethanol industry, not to mention low crude oil prices are causing weak ethanol demand. Projects all across the country are suspending construction, delaying start-ups, being put on hold, filing for bankruptcy, auctioning off assets or being scrapped.

AltraBiofuels may not be done closing plants, either. In a call to Altra's sister plant, Coshocton Ethanol LLC, in Coshocton, Ohio, that was rumored to be closing as well, plant officials said they "could not comment" on the future of the facility. The 60 million-gallon-per-year plant came online in February.

More than likely, the 113 million-gallon-per-year Altra Nebraska plant that was scheduled to be complete by the end of this month in Carleton, Nebraska, will not go into operation as planned.

"Many of these plants are farmer- and investor-owned facilities and won't be able to handle a crisis very well," said Jay Brunson, Industrial Info's Vice President for Alternative Fuels. "2009 will more than likely be a consolidation year for the industry, and the big players will get even bigger."

By the end of the year, the domestic fuel ethanol industry is expected to produce in excess of 11 billion gallons per year of the renewable fuel.

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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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.