US East Coast ethanol stocks for the reporting week ended March 7 slumped 294,000 barrels to an all-time recorded low of 4.565 million barrels, Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.
Overall US ethanol stocks slumped 703,000 barrels to 15.908 million barrels, a 10-week low, while weekly US ethanol production hit an eight-week low, shedding 25,000 b/d to 869,000 b/d.
East Coast stocks were at their lowest levels since EIA began publishing the data in June 2010. The extreme supply tightness has been reflected in prices throughout March as New York Harbor ethanol assessments have hovered around Platts record highs.
US Midwest ethanol stocks plunged 428,000 barrels to 6.482 million barrels, a seven-week low. Gulf Coast stocks fell by 18,000 barrels to 2.553 million barrels, while West Coast stocks nudged up 39,000 barrels to 1.979 million barrels.
Overall stocks were 2.78 million barrels, or 14.9%, lower than one year ago, in large part due to East Coast stocks being 1.86 million barrels, or 28.9%, lower than their year-ago mark.
The four-week rolling average of gasoline demand moved up 156,000 b/d to 8.481 million b/d, and the four-week rolling average of the refiner and blender net ethanol input added 6,000 b/d to 832,000 b/d.
As the rise in gasoline demand outweighed the rise in blending demand, the four-week rolling average of the ethanol blending rate -- calculated by dividing the four-week rolling averages of the net ethanol input and gasoline demand -- shed 0.11 percentage point from the nine-month high hit in the previous week to 9.81%, 0.19 percentage point shy of the 10% "blend wall."
The blend wall occurs when the maximum amount of the US gasoline pool has been blended to a level of 10% ethanol. Refiners then will be under pressure to run higher ethanol blends, buy renewable credits known as RINs or push for Congress to alter the Renewable Fuel Standard.
