The U.S. ethanol industry entered 2023 on an uncertain note, with weekly profits teetering around the breakeven level. Like all other facets of the commodity business, the ethanol industry was rocked by the market impacts of the Ukraine-Russia War for much of 2022. In this extremely volatile environment, it was far from clear how the U.S. ethanol industry would fare going into 2023. The purpose of this article is to estimate the profitability of U.S. ethanol production for the 2023 calendar year and assess how successfully the industry navigated the continuing volatility in commodity markets.
