Biodiesel expansion is called off

FutureFuel, a start-up firm that purchased Eastman Chemical's Batesville, Ark., plant last October, has shelved a planned expansion of biodiesel capacity there. In October, the company unveiled plans to increase the site's capacity from its current 24 million gal per year to 40 million gal by May and 160 million gal by November. But since then, FutureFuel says, rising prices for raw material soybean oil and declining prices for diesel have squeezed biodiesel profit margins. "As a result of these decreased margins, the company has determined that it is not in its shareholders' best interest at this time to proceed on an accelerated basis to increase capacity," the company says.