Market News & Headlines >> Corn-for-Ethanol Use Remained Below Expectations in March

U.S. corn-for-ethanol use continued to run below a year earlier and below the pace needed to reach USDA’s 2022/23 forecast, Monday afternoon’s monthly Grain Crushings and Co-Products Production confirmed.

USDA pegged March corn-for-ethanol use at 438 million bushels, up 8.8% from 398.8 million in February, but down 3.4% from March 2022 production of 453.3 million bushels.

September-March corn-for-ethanol use of 2.988 billion bushels was 4.9% below a year earlier. USDA currently forecasts 2022/23 corn-for-ethanol use at 5.250 billion bushels, 1.4% below the year-earlier level of 5.326 billion bushels.

With corn-for-ethanol use continuing to lag, March production of distillers’ dry grains with solubles (DDGS) was also down from a year earlier. USDA pegged March DDGS production at 401 million short tons down 4.8% from March 2022 production of 421.3 million tons.