Outside of a two-year period in 2012 and 2013, U.S. ethanol exports have risen annually since 2009, reaching a record 1.2 billion gallons in 2011.
While volumes held steady, FAS noted, "The value of U.S. ethanol exports was $1.8 billion in 2015, down 14% from $2 billion in 2014, due to lower prices," FAS said. "Over the past two years, lower ethanol prices and more diverse export destinations helped sustain higher export volumes despite collapsing oil prices and a stronger US dollar. The advantage of increased market diversity was demonstrated in 2015 when record sales to China, Korea and India more than offset a sales downturn to Canada, the United States' top market."
The U.S. continued to hold a 50% share in global non-beverage ethanol exports in 2015, FAS noted. "The United States' export reliance (the percent of production exported) and the portion of the US corn crop supporting ethanol exports both remained largely unchanged over the past two years."