COVID-19 Crisis Affects Ethanol Industry

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April 24, 2020

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by Kelby Wingert (The Messenger) … With fewer cars on the roads, fewer people commuting to work and fewer families traveling for vacations, gasoline prices across the nation began to drop. And while consumers at the pump are enjoying the lowest gas prices in a decade, the nation’s ethanol biofuels industry is hurting.

“Ethanol is in nearly every gallon of gasoline,” said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. “And what we’ve done to help mitigate the spread of the virus is we’ve shut down the economy to a large extent, we’ve told people to work from home, we’ve told people not to go out and as a result, gasoline demand is down tremendously.”

And while Shaw highlighted that the ethanol industry is not the only industry suffering during this COVID-19 crisis, nor is it suffering worse than any other industry, nearly half of the ethanol production capacity is now offline, both in Iowa and across the country. He said he is aware of eight or nine ethanol processing plants in Iowa that have shut down production over the past month, but did not specify which ones.

“It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” Shaw said.

Shaw said that while no specific government aid has been released for the ethanol industry, it will need help to get through this.

“Ethanol producers will need some assistance to help weather the storm, otherwise we could see some bankruptcies,” he said. READ MORE

BUSTOS, OTHER LAWMAKERS CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR ETHANOL ASSISTANCE (Brownfield Ag News)

Global oil storage shortages weigh on ethanol prospects — Feed and CO2 demand provide little ethanol support as worldwide energy storage capacity swells to 60%. (Farm Progress/Farm Futures)

ADM idles large Iowa, Nebraska corn-based ethanol plants (Associated Press/Washington Times)

Pacific Biodiesel Continues Operations (Maui Now)

ADM to temporarily idle ethanol output at 2 facilities on lower gasoline demand (Reuters)

ADM Idles Columbus Ethanol Plant; Growth Energy Calls for Relief (KTIC)

More Ethanol Plant Closures in Iowa, Nebraska (Wisconsin Ag Connection)

ADM to Reduce Ethanol Grind in Response to Market Conditions and to divert corn grind to other products that are in higher demand, such as alcohol for hand sanitizer. ((ADM)

Growth Energy Calls for Relief for U.S. Ethanol (KRVN)