Renewed talk of US ethanol exports has supported domestic prices the past two days, sources said Friday.
"I have heard export activity [has] picked up and been strong in the last seven to 10 days," one trader said.
India, the Philippines and Brazil are the top three destinations to which companies are sending US ethanol, sources said.
Ethanol prices, which usually follow movements in corn futures, rose Thursday despite a 14-cent fall in the front-month CBOT corn futures contract. Chicago Argo was heard trading at $1.61/gal Friday, down only 95 points, while corn futures traded 5.5 cents lower.
Some support has come as exports have started shipping out of Global Partners' converted ethanol transloading terminal in Clatskanie, Oregon. "They converted that fuel depot into a crude facility and now to ethanol with what crude prices have done," a broker said, referring to crude oil's fall in value over the past two years.
Another source said that ethanol leaving Global's terminal is bound for the Philippines. Sailing out of the Pacific Northwest avoids the fees incurred when sailing through the Panama Canal out of the US Gulf Coast, a more common origin for US exports.
Global was not immediately available for comment about current operations at the Clatskanie facility.
Exports waned slightly in the past weeks as prices in the US rose, with Chicago Argo reaching an 18-month high of $1.7175/gal on June 14.
