Nearly 1.64 Billion Gallons of Ethanol Production Sitting Idle

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--An estimated 1.64 billion gallons of annual fuel-ethanol production is sitting idle. That represents roughly 25 production facilities in the U.S. Data released from the Energy Information Administration last week indicated U.S. ethanol production was on the upswing. November 2008 data showed production was up 20.054 million barrels from 20.048 barrels in October.

Profit margins began an uptick as well. The ethanol crush spread rose about 7.8 cents to 19.8 cents a gallon, using the formula of the Midwest ethanol price, minus the corn price divided by 2.8.

Jay Brunson, Industrial Info's Vice President of Alternative Fuels, said, "We continue to see negative profit margins from producers, and I don't see much improvement over the next 12 months." Daily corn prices for February and March were in the $3.38-per-bushel range, and if the slide continues, operating margins could improve.

Click on the image at right for a list of fuel-ethanol plants speculated to be idle.

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.

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.