CHICAGO — ADM has announced plans to resume ethanol production at two of its US dry mills.

In April 2020, ADM idled ethanol production at the company’s corn dry mill facilities in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Columbus, Neb., due to the challenging operating environment caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At the time, most US states were under shelter-in-place orders from state governments to prevent the spread of COVID-19, resulting in reduced demand for transportation fuel.

ADM is now planning to resume dry mill ethanol production at the Cedar Rapids and Columbus facilities as ethanol demand ticks up.

“We’ve been carefully monitoring a wide variety of industry ethanol conditions, and in recent weeks, we’ve seen consistent signs pointing to accelerating demand for domestic ethanol,” ADM said. “Inventories across the industry are steadily coming down, China is importing volumes, we continue to expect driving miles to increase as the pace of vaccinations accelerates, and the EPA’s support of a strong Renewable Fuel Standard is helping drive great blending economics. Based on these multiple factors, we are confident in increasing demand for ethanol, and in order to meet that demand, we are planning to restart production at our Vantage Corn Processors dry mills in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Columbus, Neb.

“We plan to begin corn grind immediately, with initial ethanol deliveries for customers by mid-April and ramping up to full rates by late spring, to meet the demands of the spring and summer driving season. We’re pleased to welcome back our Cedar Rapids and Columbus colleagues, and we’re excited about the prospects for these facilities as ethanol demand increases and as we continue to expand the range of innovative, alternative products we make from corn.

“In addition, with the restart of our dry mills, we will continue with the discussions with the interested parties regarding these assets.”

In the United States, ADM has a total of 17 corn processing plants, including both dry mills where corn is ground, crushed and rolled for use in products such as fuel and animal feeds. The company’s existing US corn processing facilities are located in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and North Carolina.