Fuel consumption could be 11 percent lower this year than last year, which translates to less ethanol consumption.
In January, the USDA forecast put “corn used for ethanol” at just under 5.5 billion bushels; now the estimate is 4.9 billion bushels. As transportation restriction and quarantine mandates lift, the number will creep back up but the Energy Information Administration says that could take atlas 18 months.
One report states that the second quarter of 2020 will see the largest impact, with ethanol consumption falling from 40.3 million gallons per day at the end of 2019 all the way down to just 29 million gallons per day in April, May, and June this year.