Market News & Headlines >> Corn-for-Ethanol Use Continues to Come Up Short

Last week’s monthly Grain Crushings and Co-products Production report from USDA revealed that U.S. corn-for-ethanol use in December was down 5.4% from November and 11.0% from December 2021.

Reduced fuel demand, poor producer margins and the major winter storm that hit near Christmas all worked to slow ethanol production and corn-for-ethanol use.

USDA pegged December corn-for-ethanol use at 425.3 million bushels down from 450.3 million in November and 477.9 million in December 2021. Through the first four months of the 2022/23 marketing year corn-for-ethanol use totaled 1.708 billion bushels, 6.1% below a year earlier.

With USDA currently forecasting a drop of less than 1.0% in marketing year corn-for-ethanol use and ethanol production continuing to run below expected levels through January, USDA will likely lower its 2022/23 corn-for-ethanol use forecast at some point, possibly as soon as Wednesday when it releases its February Supply/Demand report.

Lower ethanol production has meant lower distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) output as well. December DDGS production totaled about 1.68 million short tons, down  about 5.6% from November and down 19.0% from December 2021.