U.S. exports substantially climbed during the month of July, this after three consecutive months of sliding numbers, according to government data released today. Denatured and undenatured (non-beverage) ethanol exports totaled 25.2 million gallons, up 57percent from June. Large volumes were imported by Brazil and the United Arab Emeriates (UAE) this month after several months of not importing any U.S. product.

Canada continued to serve as the top U.S. export destination for denatured ethanol, importing 9.5 million gallons of product. Finland imported its first shipment of U.S. denatured ethanol this year, totaling 4.5 million gallons. Brazil, the Netherlands, and UAE rounded out the top five denatured ethanol importers for July.

July exports of undenatured, non-beverage ethanol continued to slide. Only 2.7 million gallons of undenatured product was exported, down from 5 million gallons in June. However, nearly 90 percent of undenatured ethanol exports went to Mexico.

Exports continue at a record pace with total year-to-date ethanol exports for 2010 at 182.7 million gallons (121.7 million gallons of denatured ethanol and 61 million gallons of undenatured). Only once in the last 20 years has the U.S. exported more ethanol than it has through the first seven months of 2010. In 1995, the U.S. exported 197.5 million gallons of denatured and undenatured ethanol.

July also marked a new monthly record for exports of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) with China the top destination claiming nearly 40 percent. In July, 886,300 metric tons of DDGS were exported from the U.S. Year-to-date DDGS exports (January-July) now stand at 4.95 million metric tons, compared to 5.65 million metric tons for all of 2009. Notably, more DDGS were exported in the month of July alone than in the entire year of 2004. The U.S. ethanol industry is on pace to export 8.5 million metric tons of DDGS this year, equivalent to about 28 percent of expected DDGS production.

In addition, daily ethanol production for the week of September 3, 2010 averaged 875,000 barrels per day (b/d) or 36.750 million gallons per day. This is an increase of 19,000 b/d from the previous week. Ethanol stocks also remain steady at 17.7 million barrels.

While ethanol production continues to rise, gasoline demand continues to fall to just over 389 million gallons per day. Expressed as a percentage of daily gasoline demand, daily ethanol production was 9.45 percent.

On the feed side, the ethanol industry was using an average of 13.267 million bushels of corn daily to produce ethanol as well as 98,750 metric tons of livestock feed daily. Of this total, distillers grains production was more than 87,000 metric tons daily. Additionally, ethanol producers were also supplying 3.79 million pounds of corn oil daily.