Corn closes at lowest level since September 2016

Corn futures slumped on Friday near 4-year low, after data showed signals about a slowdown in the US ethanol industry demand.

The US demand for gasoline was weighed down by the coronavirus outbreak, as ethanol is used in producing the biofuel mixture with gasoline.

The ethanol industry uses large amounts of corn in production, but gasoline demand fell by 25% to 6.7 million barrels during the week ending March 27.

Official data showed that the ethanol production fell by 741 million gallons during the last week of March, and corn is used in the ethanol production by around 40%.

Corn May futures fell 0.9% to close at the lowest level since September 2016 of $3.30 per bushel, with a day high of $3.38 and a low of $3.28.