Ethanol makers cutting production

WICHITA, Kan. – Ethanol makers are cutting production, and some are temporarily idling plants in the Midwest, as corn prices skyrocket and demand for gasoline falls because people are driving less.

More than 95 percent of the nation’s ethanol plants use corn starch as their basis for the biofuel. That makes these facilities especially vulnerable to high corn prices in a commodity market nervous about triple-digit temperatures and drought in major corn-growing regions. Most of the more than 200 ethanol plants in the United States are in the Midwest, where most corn is grown.

A glut of the biofuel is squeezing ethanol makers further. The poor economy and high gas prices have people driving less, and ethanol is primarily used in gasoline blends.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday that farmers planted 96.4 million acres of corn this spring. It’s the largest number of planted acres since 1937, when 97 million were planted. The revised estimate, based on early June farm surveys, is up from May’s estimate of nearly 92 million acres.

The report, however, didn’t do much to ease fears about damage from heat or drought.

“A lot of planted acres are going to be irrelevant based on weather conditions,” said Rick Kment, a Nebraska-based ethanol analyst for the agricultural data company DTN.

Unlike in the early years of the ethanol industry, when a downturn could mean widespread plant closings and bankruptcies, the recent cutbacks are adjustments being made to manage risk when profit margins are narrow, Kment said.

Valero Energy Corp., a major petroleum company that also operates 10 ethanol plants, temporarily idled plants in Albion, Neb., and Linden, Ind., because it was costing the company more to make ethanol than it could sell it for, spokesman Bill Day said.

“We expect this to be temporary. We don’t think this is a long-term thing,” Day said.