Markets Wired

The market for ethanol fuel in the United States is still unconcentrated, with 160 firms nationwide either producing ethanol or likely to be in production within the next 18 months, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s 2010 report on the state of U.S. ethanol production.

The FTC report is the agency’s sixth annual report on ethanol market concentration. In the report, staff calculated market concentration for the ethanol production industry using different measures. It concluded that as of September 2010, there were the same number of ethanol producers in the United States as were listed in the FTC’s 2009 report. The largest ethanol producer’s share of capacity increased slightly to 12 percent of domestic ethanol production capacity – above the 11 percent share in 2008 and 2009, but still below the largest producer’s capacity share, between 2000 and 2007, which ranged from 16 percent in 2007 to 41 percent in 2000.

The annual reports are required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The 2010 report is available on the FTC’s website and as a link to this press release. It was submitted to Congress and the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as required by the Act. The Commission vote to issue the 2010 report, which was prepared by the staff of the Bureaus of Competition and Economics, was 5-0. (FTC File No. P063000; the staff contact is John H. Seesel, Associate General Counsel for Energy, Office of the General Counsel, 202-326-2702)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s website at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(FYI 53.2010.wpd)