CropEnergies increased its ethanol output by 23% to 1,030,000 cu m in the financial year from March 1, 2016 to February 28, 2017, the German-headquartered company said in its annual report Wednesday.
The company attributed most of the increase to the restart of the Ensus plant at Wilton, UK in July 2016. As a result, all plants were running at high capacity utilization rates since the summer of 2016, the report said.
CropEnergies also increased its production of food and animal feed products by 63% to 574,000 mt.
Higher production and sales volumes more than offset lower prices and resulted in an 11% revenue increase to Eur802 million ($890 million) for the financial year, a new record result, the company said.
It said it intend to continue utilizing its production capacities flexibly according to market conditions.
CropEnergies expects a slight rise in ethanol demand in Europe due to higher blending mandates, but lower prices than the last quarter of the financial year 2016-17, given the high level of European production capacity.
The company said any future investments will largely depend on the EU framework for biofuels post 2020.
CropEnergies has production facilities in four locations with the following annual ethanol production capacities: Zeitz in Germany (400,000 cu m), Wanze in Belgium (300,000 cu m), Loon-Plage in France (190,000 cu m), and Wilton (400,000 cu m).
