February 13, 2012

China's US DDGS imports may hit six million tonnes in 2016 

China's imports of US distillers dried grains (DDGS) will likely hit six million tonnes in 2016, or 42% of its total DDGS consumption, the US Grains Council (USGC) said Friday (Feb 10).

The imports are expected to grow at an annualised rate of 5% over the coming years, it added.

The USGC said that it had commissioned the study from Shanghai-based JCI, an industry research company.

Chinese restrictions on domestic ethanol production led to a sharp rise in imports of US DDGS around 2009. The dried grains are produced when corn is processed into ethanol.

The sharp rise in imports prompted an antidumping probe from Beijing, which slowed US DDGS imports last year.

"JCI does not foresee in its outlook that the investigation will result in significant barriers to US DDGS exports to China in the future," the council said.