US biodiesel production fell to 70 million gallons in January, down 48% from December, Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.
Production was up 6.1% compared with January 2013.
Of the 530 million lb of feedstock used to produce US biodiesel in January, soybean oil's share reached 45.47%, down 8.85 percentage points from December, the EIA said.
Soybean oil remained the largest biodiesel feedstock, with 241 million lb consumed. The next three largest feedstocks were corn oil (73 million lb), yellow grease (60 million lb) and alcohol (55 million lb), the EIA said.
Producer sales of biodiesel during January included 49 million gallons sold as B100 (100% biodiesel) and an additional 17 million gallons of B100 sold in biodiesel blends with diesel derived from petroleum, the EIA said.
Production came from 115 biodiesel plants -- 26 less than in December -- with an annual production capacity of 1.9 billion gal/year, the EIA said.
In January, 69% of production come from the Midwest, 5 percentage points higher than December, the EIA said.
