APPEC: US Ethanol Exports Slow as Producers Diversify away from China

September 13, 2019

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by Donavan Lim and Yi Jeng Huang (S&P Gobal Platts) US ethanol exports are forecast to fall around 100 million gallons year on year to 1.5 billion gallons in 2019 as trade flows redirects away from China toward Southeast Asia and India, according to industry executive in an interview at the S&P Global Platts Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference in Singapore Wednesday.

"Having a 70% import duty on the US essentially stops US shipments to China. We haven't been able to ship any ethanol in that direction this year," Ethanol Group President at The Andersons Inc. Jim Pirolli said, adding: "If that wasn't in place, [US ethanol would] definitely be economically viable."

China raised the tariffs on US denatured ethanol to 70% in July 2018, as trade tensions heated up.

Producers are actively exploring new markets to diversify away from China, according to the US Grains Council. READ MORE

Are U.S. farmers being asked to sacrifice their farms to stop China from pirating Iron Man movies? (Chicago Now)

FUTURE OF ETHANOL EXPORTS -- EXPORTS OF U.S. ETHANOL COULD HIT A RECORD 4 BILLION GALLONS A YEAR IN 2022. (Successful Farming)

CORRECTED-U.S. Grains Council targets rest of Asia for ethanol sales as tariffs shut out China (Reuters)

Excerpt from Chicago Now: From pirated movies to Coach purse knockoffs, stolen software and fake Viagra, there's no trademark or copyright that China won't violate.

The problem may be particularly vexing for America, China owning about a trillion dollars worth of our debt and all.

Hard to see how farmers fit into all this. While the Trump administration pays them a lot of lip service, their policies say, Screw farmers.

A couple of things that may have slipped under your radar include the rollback of the ethanol requirement for gasoline (good for Exxon, bad for corn farmers) and using eminent domain to take farmland for oil pipeline (see previous parenthetical comment).

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America's farmers are being used as poker chips in an ill-advised, poorly thought out trade war with China in an attempt to reign in their blatant disregard for intellectual property.

Farmers have spent decades cultivating China as a trade partner, opening up that 1.5 billion person market, which may now be gone for generations.

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The scary thing in all this is that Trump still enjoys the support of America's farmers, who are losing their land and committing suicide at alarming rates. READ MORE