by Tim McDonnell (Quartz) … A year later, American drivers are back at the gas pump, and ethanol plants are back online. ADM re-opened its plants in early April; POET’s plants re-opened in August 2020 but only hit full production capacity in April. Then, just as ethanol’s road ahead was beginning to look clear, another unanticipated obstacle emerged: the spot price of its key ingredient corn surged to its highest levels in a decade in May.
Between April 1 and May 4, the price of corn jumped 28% to $7.30 per bushel, the biggest monthly gain in a decade. The resurgence of ethanol refining is only part of the reason (30%-40% of US corn ends up as ethanol). An even bigger reason is that corn imports by China are now hitting record highs as the country’s economy recovers from the pandemic.