US ethanol production for the week ended August 15 moved up 6,000 b/d to 937,000 b/d, helping US ethanol stocks build 491,000 barrels to 8.251 million barrels, US Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.
For the first time since the week ended June 27, both production and stocks moved higher in the same reporting week.
All but one of the five regions reported a build in stocks, led by a 420,000-barrel rise in the East Coast region, rebounding from a four-month low.
Midwest stocks also made a sizable improvement, adding 289,000 barrels to 6.275 million barrels. West Coast stocks ticked up 38,000 barrels to 2.165 million barrels, and Rocky Mountain stocks climbed 20,000 barrels to 303,000 barrels, a two-month high.
Gulf Coast stocks, on the other hand, tumbled 277,000 barrels to 3.01 million barrels, falling for a second consecutive week after hitting an 18-month high in the week ended August 1.
For the fourth time in the last five weeks, there were no imports reported.
The four-week rolling average of gasoline demand moved down 4,000 b/d to 9.016 million b/d, while the four-week rolling average of the refiner and blender net ethanol input shed 2,000 b/d to 876,000 b/d. The weekly refiner and blender net ethanol input plunged 26,000 b/d to 864,000 b/d.
As the drop in blending demand was outweighed by the proportional decline in gasoline 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 0.01 percentage point to 9.72%, 0.28 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.
