China imported 120,702 cu m of ethanol in January, the highest level in 13 months, Platts reported, citing data from China’s General Administration of Customs.

January imports were up from just 33 cu m in December 2017.

Ethanol imports into China were much curtailed after the country imposed an import duty of 30% on denatured ethanol in January 2017.

The reason for the increased imports in January this year is lower US ethanol prices in the final quarter of 2017, which opened the arbitrage to China in spite of the duty, market sources told Platts.

China imported 91,287 cu m denatured ethanol in January, almost entirely from the US. Almost all of the imports of undenatured ethanol came from Pakistan.

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