ADM exec: China move will boost U.S. ethanol exports
China’s plan to move to a 10 percent blend of ethanol in its gasoline supply will boost U.S. ethanol exports, said ADM Chief Executive Juan Luciano, Successful Farming reported.
Agrimoney says Luciano told investors that China could need to import 8 million tons a year by 2020 to satisfy the E10 target because of the nation’s longer-term fuel strategy.
The E10 target is likely to be satisfied at first by corn ethanol, he said, but China aims to rely heavily on advanced, or cellulosic, ethanol from 2025. Cellulosic ethanol is made from grass, crop debris and woody plants. Luciano said Chinese companies were unlikely to build expensive corn ethanol plants to produce a product that would soon be replaced. Agrimoney quoted Luciano as saying, “It’s going to create a bigger ethanol market that every now and then … we’re going to export to, like we’ve being doing to Brazil.”
Ethanol shipments to China nearly stopped this year following the reinstatement of a 30 percent duty on the biofuel, supplied mainly by Brazil and the U.S.