SAN ANTONIO - Valero Energy Corp. is restarting ethanol
plants in stated heavily affected by the 2012 drought. The plant in
Bloomingburg, Ohio, has resumed operations, and a plant in Linden, Indiana, is
expected to come back online within the next few weeks. A third plant in
Albion, Nebraska, resumed operations last month.
Bill Day, Valero??s executive director of media relations, told
Ethanol Producer Magazine that the three temporarily idled plants are located
in areas where corn prices were higher than the national average. Although margins
were very narrow at other plants, Day added that the margins at the three idled
plants were negative. As a result, Valero made the decision to temporarily
bring them offline.
Now that corn prices have improved, the Bloomingburg plant has
restarted operations. "Corn prices finally moderated enough to where the plant
could be reopened and operated at a profit," Day told the magazine, adding, "We
expect that to happen as well at the Linden, Indiana, plant."
Day continued that the outlook is looking positive: "There
has been quite a bit of snow in the Midwest over the winter, so that snow melt
will get into the soil, and that will help boost the planting in the spring.
Hopefully we??ll get some rain over the summer, and that will help with the
harvest. As long as there is a decent harvest and good yields, corn prices
should be healthy, but more moderate and less volatile than they were last
year, and that will help ethanol margins."