Ethanol overview Transcript
The European ethanol market is a traditional one, and it covers the two main grades the 99% industrial, which is both synthetic and fermented and the 96% neutral beverage grade which is mainly based on molasses.
The market is generally quarterly based but there is also an element of monthly distribution and spot business. There are also some longer term contracts and they’re typically for the larger volume customers.
There’s also a 96% rectified neutral grade (REN) market which is a seasonal one and typically goes into the screen wash sector.
Other downstream sectors include industrial applications, cosmetic and pharmaceutical and also different beverage beverages as well.
The overall pricing trend has been firm particularly in the second half of this year, and this is due to: globally poor harvests; a resulting lack of imports; synthetic production problems and robust demand.
The future outlooks also set to be firm and increasing. This is due to the next harvest availability, due mid next year in Europe and also the renewable energy directive in Europe which is set to boost biofuel consumption by 10% by 2020. So this will have an additional burden on the traditional ethanol market.