Rail carriers see the Southeast and Southwest as the next likely growth areas for the U.S. ethanol market in 2008, executives with two of the largest ethanol haulers said.
CSX Transportation, a unit of CSX Corp. (CSX (CSX), plans to build three ethanol terminals in the South this year, Kyle Hancock, CSX vice president for industrial and agricultural products, said in an interview Friday as part of the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit in Chicago.
"For us, the market that is growing this year and that we expect to continue to grow into next year is the southern market -- the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida," Hancock said.
The CSX terminals, currently in the development stage, would load and unload ethanol unit trains of 80 to 85 tanker cars. Hancock would not give the specific locations but said the terminals would likely be built in 2008.
CSX currently operates five such ethanol terminals in the Northeast, all built within the last few years as the boom in biofuels took off....MORE
