Ethanol Europe deem Low-Emission Mobility Strategy damaging to production

Ethanol sales in Spain in August were 15.5% lower year on year at 21,056 mt, which was down 0.9% from July, data from strategic reserve corporation CORES showed.

August ethanol consumption was the second highest this year after July on seasonal factors.

Gasoline demand was on a different trajectory, rising 0.8% month on month and 6.0% year on year to 457,284 mt, taking the ethanol incorporation rate to 4.60% on a volume basis, down from 4.68% in July and 5.78% a year earlier.

Biodiesel sales in Spain in August rose 1.5% month on month and 3.7% year on year to 84,839 mt, the highest this year.

Gasoil demand fell 2.7% on the month but was up 6.4% on the year to 1.953 million mt with a biodiesel incorporation rate of 4.34% on a volume basis for August. That indicates the proportion of biodiesel blended in gasoil was higher than July (4.16%) but lower than August 2015 (4.45%).

On a cumulative basis, January-August ethanol demand was 161,986 mt, a drop of 13.9% year on year. On the other hand, biodiesel consumption rose 2.9% to 639,453 mt.

The main factor behind this divergence in trends for ethanol and biodiesel consumption is Spain having changed its mandate to 4.3% for biofuels on an energy basis and abolished the minimums for ethanol and biodiesel.

The change favors biodiesel sales over ethanol because diesel in Spain has a greater market share -- 82.5% in January-August -- than gasoline.

The latest estimate by Platts Analytics for ethanol consumption in Spain this year is 310 million liters, down from 357.8 million liters from 2015, as a result of the implementation of the new mandate.

The estimate by Platts Analytics for biodiesel consumption is 960,000 mt, up from 945,800 mt seen last year.