Valero Brings Ethanol Plants Back Online in Midwest

During the 2012 drought, Valero idled three ethanol plants in Ohio, Indiana and Nebraska.

March 25, 2013

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."

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