German Biodiesel Boosts Archer-Daniels-Midland's U.S. Import Dominance — OPIS

While Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. continued to dominate U.S. biodiesel imports at the start of 2023, it continued to also rely heavily on German biofuel production to do so, according to company-level import data gathered by the Energy Information Administration.

ADM, a U.S.-based agricultural processing giant, delivered 24.948 million gal of biodiesel imports to the U.S. during January.

About 72.4%, or 18.06 million gal of imports, originated out of Germany, an OPIS review of the most recent company-reported data issued by EIA revealed. The balance of ADM imports, about 6.888 million gal, arrived from Canada.

The company's import total, while easing 1% from the month before, almost doubled its year-ago deliveries and still constituted about 63.9% of all U.S. biodiesel imports in January.

U.S. biodiesel imports in January totaled 39.06 million gal, according to EIA's company figures, and that increased 9.3% versus the December total and more than doubled up on the year-ago import total.

The January delivery breakdown for ADM biodiesel imports had the German shipments taking a pair of deliveries into New Jersey, with nearly 6.9 million gal into Newark and another 6.678 million gal into Perth Amboy. German material also provided a 2.982-million-gal load that landed in Houston and 1.512 million gal into Cape Canaveral, Fla.

ADM's Canadian deliveries shipped 3.528 million gal of biodiesel to International Falls, Minn., and 2.898 million gal to Blaine, Wash., along with a delivery that dropped 462,000 gal into Eastport, Idaho.

A number of other biodiesel importers significantly boosted the shipments in January.

GreenAmerica Biofuels Ord LLC imported 7.434 million gal of the biofuel during the month, up 52.5% from the month before and more than five times the biodiesel it delivered to U.S. storage a year ago. The importer also tapped several overseas providers for their January biodiesel shipments, including 2.898 million gal from Italy with 2.688 million gal of it going to Savannah, Ga., and 210,000 gal to Jacksonville, Fla.

GreenAmerica took a couple deliveries of biodiesel from Spain that totaled 3.276 million gal. That included a 2.394 million gal Spanish biodiesel shipment to Jacksonville, Fla., and an 882,000 gal load into Houston. The 1.26 million gal GreenAmerica received from South Korea during the month shipped into Los Angeles.

Shell PLC's Shell U.S. Trading arm also upped its biodiesel imports during January. It imported 3.402 million gal from Canada, representing about twice as much as what Shell imported last month. Of that total, the company sent 2.814 million gal into Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y. Shell also sent 378,000 gal into Champlain-Rouses Point, N.Y., and 210,000 gal into Blaine, Wash.

While traders at Vitol cut their biodiesel shipments 21.1% from December, they still delivered 2.982 million gal of biodiesel from Spain to Houston, and that was more than twice the year-ago imports ascribed to Vitol.

EIA's biodiesel import roster for the month was rounded out by smaller deliveries of Canadian material delivered by Targray Markets Inc. that totaled 294,000 gal. Portal, N.D., storage received 252,000 gal of biodiesel through Targray over January, while Sweetgrass, Mont., landed a 42,000 gal shipment.

EIA's initial monthly data for 2023 showed biodiesel importers finding a broader spectrum of sources for importing the fuel. ADM's German deliveries made that nation the top source for U.S. biodiesel imports in January, at more than 18 million gal.

The traditional leader, Canada, fell behind at a little more than 10.58 million gal. Spain was the source for 6.258 million gal of imported biodiesel, with Italy following just short of 2.9 million gal. South Korean biodiesel accounted for 1.26 million gal in January.

Renewable diesel imports cooled for the second month in a row, according to EIA data. The 26.586 million gal in total renewable diesel deliveries from Neste Oyj in January all originated out of Singapore and represented a 5.5%, or 1.554 million gal, month-to-month decline. It also left Neste imports just a hair -- 0.16% -- behind the same month in 2022.

Neste's largest January shipment of renewable diesel had a 14.91-million-gal load moving into Las Angeles. The Finnish producer also sent 10.542 million gal to San Francisco in January and 1.134 million gal to Portland, Ore.

EIA did not show any company importing ethanol over January, the second straight month that the agency's data failed to note any overseas fuel ethanol shipments landing in U.S. ports. At the same time last year, EIA noted about 10.8 million gal of imported ethanol entering the U.S.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

--Reporting by Spencer Kelly, skelly@opisnet.com; Editing by Christie Citranglo, ccitranglo@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 11, 2023 11:52 ET (15:52 GMT)

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