US ethanol milestone for GTL
TEESSIDE-BASED green energy company GTL Resources has today reported its first profit.
The Yarm-based company, which has an ethanol plant in Rochelle, Illinois, USA, reported pre-tax profits of £4.1m for the six months to the end of September.
Turnover was £33.6m.
Last month GTL said construction had begun to double capacity from 50 million gallons per annum to 100 million gallons a year at its ethanol plant at Rochelle.
Completion of the project is scheduled for the second calendar quarter of 2009.
The starting of work followed the previously announced successful fundraising in July of £13m through the issue of 9.3 million new ordinary shares, to part fund the expansion.
Today Peter Middleton, GTL’s executive chairman, said: “'We are delighted to report our first profits and feel that this represents a milestone for GTL.
“Operationally it has been a good period for GTL with the first full six months of production exceeding 115% of nameplate capacity and we are also pleased to report that the expansion project of the plant commenced successfully and is currently both on time and on budget.”
More than 90% of GTL’s sales of ethanol during the period have been made into the main target market of Chicago, exploiting the economical advantages to be gained from its proximity to the plant.
The company added that the current low price of ethanol relative to gasoline provides a great incentive for further blending of ethanol to take place in parts of the country which are not as yet blending ethanol.
The initial 50mgpa GTL plant has now been in production for approximately ten months.
Share
