Futures Close Report 8th January 2020

Plans to increase blended ethanol content in petrol to circa 10% have been cancelled by China – as a sharp decline in domestic corn stocks combined with limited production capacity make implementation difficult.  China was expected to increase imports of U.S. ethanol after the recent announcement of Phase 1 of a trade agreement.  Dating back to 2016 US exports of ethanol were as high as 20% of production but with higher duties this has slowed to a minimal level in recent years, US producers were hoping for a return to these levels which now looks unlikely.