Ethanol Blog

Spot ethanol trading was thin through midday as Chicago Board of Trade corn prices fell and the market awaits the final government stocks data for corn, the feedstock for ethanol.

"The (corn) market is overbought," commented Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage, Des Moines, Iowa. The March 28 quarterly stock numbers should clear up distortions in harvest figures, Pfitzenmaier said.

"The question is how many bushels of the corn harvest early in 2012 were counted in 2012 and how many were pulled back into 2011," he said, adding that this has distorted the supply/demand for corn.

The tight corn market caused corn prices to rise and ethanol plants to be idled due to low profit margins in 2012.

Myke Feinman can be reached at myke.feinman@telventdtn.com.