Asian ethanol prices have gone up following a drop in domestic production in the Philippines, traders said Monday.
The price of ethanol CIF Philippines jumped $7/cu m to be assessed at $668/cu m Friday amid strong demand for imported material in the country.
"We are hearing bids from the Philippines in the high $660s/cu m. We see a lot of ethanol cargoes from Thailand moving into the region," a trader said. Ethanol prices ex-Thailand were heard offered at $620/cu m with value pegged between $610 and $615/cu m, according to traders.
Restart of at least two ethanol plants in the Philippines have been delayed due to "start up and debugging problems," one producer said.
"We had projected to [restart] in May, producing 3,000-4,000 liters/month. But our plans have been delayed and we now plan to restart at reduced volumes until August, stop for the rain period until December. In January 2013, we plan to restart at 200,000 liters/month, running at 60-80% of capacity and ramp up to 100% from August 2013," the producer said.
"Local buyers have to purchase 15-20% of product locally before they can buy from the export market," a trader said.
The annual production capacity of local producers in the Philippines is 124 million liters/year, which is 25.5% of total demand.
