Valero idles Linden, Indiana, ethanol plant on corn prices
Reuters • Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2012
tight corn supplies continue to drive up prices, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.
The 110-million-gallon-a-year (500-million-liter) Linden plant is the second plant Valero has idled this summer due to
poor plant economics, but the company expects to return both to production before the fall corn harvest when corn supplies
increase, said Valero spokesman Bill Day.”We’ll watch market conditions at all of our plants,” Day
said.
Valero idled production on Jun 19 at its 100-million-gallon-per-year in Albion, Nebraska, as high corn
prices and lower gasoline demand destroyed profits. Valero has also shut its 100 million-gallon-per-year Fort
Dodge, Iowa, ethanol plant for a planned overhaul, Day said. Earlier in June, Nedak Ethanol LLC temporarily shuttered its
44-million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant in Atkinson, Nebraska.
Market sources said the Linden plant was still bidding for corn on Wednesday, though at a lower basis than on Tuesday. Many
ethanol plants have decreased their basis bids in recent days due to the surging futures and poor profit margins.
Day said the plant may be buying corn, but it was not producing ethanol.
A basis bid is a bid at a differential over or under the price for a benchmark futures contract on the Chicago Board of
Trade used merchants to buy from farmers or grain elevators.