India: Biofuels Annual
India in 2016 achieved its highest ever ethanol market penetration, a gasoline blend rate of 3.3 percent on average across the country. Nevertheless, tight ethanol supplies through 2018 will limit further gains or even shrink that percentage of penetration. As a result, the ethanol blending program (EBP) is likely to expand but at a slower pace as demand from industry is partly met by imports, which are projected to grow from 500 million liters in 2017 to 600 million liters in 2018. For biodiesel, though the market penetration rate remains minimal, it will continue to grow if supported by a commercially viable strategy for building a sustainable biodiesel industry.