Aemetis India Plant Completes Capacity Expansion to 50 million Gallons Per Year of Biodiesel from Lower Cost, High FFA Feedstock

Expanding Demand from India Government and Domestic Customers

CUPERTINO, CA and HYDERABAD, INDIA, Jan. 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Aemetis, Inc. (“Aemetis” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: AMTX) announced today that its Universal Biofuels subsidiary has completed a two-year upgrade of the Kakinada, India biodiesel and glycerin plant.  The upgrades to the Kakinada plant included installation of a pre-treatment unit to process lower-cost and waste feedstock into oil; expansion of boiler and other utility capacities; and implementation of environmental systems to enable full production of 50 million gallons per year of biodiesel and bio-oil while simultaneously operating the biodiesel, pretreatment and glycerin refining units.

The 2018 India National Policy on Biofuels issued by the Indian Government increased the target for domestic biodiesel consumption to 5% of the approximately 25 billion gallons of petroleum diesel consumed in India each year from currently less than a 1% biodiesel blend.  In mid-2018, the Goods & Services Tax on biodiesel was reduced from 18% to 12% to support expansion of biodiesel.  In late 2018, the India Supreme Court determined that biodiesel may be sold at retail fueling stations, significantly expanding the market for biodiesel in India. The India government has recently issued a purchase requisition for approximately 260 million gallons of biodiesel for year 2019 to be supplied by domestic India biodiesel producers. 

“The Aemetis team in India is executing on a rapid increase in production and revenues this year to meet growing domestic market demand for biofuels in a fast-growing economy,” stated Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis.  “As the only US company producing biofuels in India, Aemetis built and has now fully upgraded our India biodiesel and refined glycerin plant to use low cost feedstocks to become a leader in the rapidly expanding India biofuels market.”

“The innovative feedstock pre-treatment unit developed and installed at the Kakinada plant provides a sustainable cost advantage and produces lower carbon biofuels to supply the growing India domestic market for biodiesel and refined glycerin, as well as export markets,” stated Sanjeev Gupta, Managing Director of Universal Biofuels.  “Expanding our steam and power requirements to enable the full operation of the new feedstock pretreatment unit along with our existing biodiesel and glycerin refining units required a substantial investment of time and specialized technical expertise.  The entire plant is now capable of operating at 50 million gallons per year of biodiesel capacity using valuable lower cost, lower carbon and waste feedstocks.”

“Importantly, this extensive upgrade to the Kakinada plant was achieved without issuing additional stock or otherwise diluting existing shareholders of Aemetis,” Mr. McAfee noted. “Aemetis continues to execute on funding and building projects that generate highly valued, low carbon biofuels primarily from waste or reused materials.”

In the first three quarters of 2018, the India biodiesel plant produced about 15,200 metric tonnes of biodiesel during the plant upgrade construction.  After the expansion announced today, current Kakinada plant capacity is approximately 50 million gallons (about 165,000 metric tonnes) of biodiesel and bio-oil production capacity per year, and approximately 5 million gallons (18,000 metric tonnes) of glycerin refining capacity per year.  The average price of biodiesel sold at the India plant in year 2018 was about $3.00 per gallon ($900 per metric ton) and glycerin was about $1,000 per metric ton. 

Aemetis will hold an investor conference call on Thursday, January 10 at 1 pm Pacific / 4 pm Eastern to review the recently-announced Aemetis Biomethane business, the India Biodiesel/Glycerin business and other updates. 

About Aemetis

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis is an advanced renewable fuels and biochemicals company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative technologies that replace traditional petroleum-based products by the conversion of ethanol and biodiesel plants into advanced biorefineries.  Founded in 2006, Aemetis owns and operates a 60 million gallon per year ethanol production facility in California’s Central Valley, near Modesto.  Aemetis also owns and operates a 50 million gallon per year renewable chemical and advanced fuel production facility on the East Coast of India producing high quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin for customers in India, the US and Europe.  Aemetis operates a research and development laboratory, and holds a portfolio of patents and related technology licenses for the production of renewable fuels and biochemicals.  For additional information about Aemetis, please visit .

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our assumptions, projections, expectations, targets, intentions or beliefs about future events or other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements relating to the production or effectiveness of the India production facility, the achievement of certain cost advantages for product produced at the India facility, and the continuance of governmental mandates for biodiesel. Words or phrases such as “anticipates,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “predicts,” “projects,” “showing signs,” “targets,” “will likely result,” “will continue” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions and predictions and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties.  Actual results or events could differ materially from those set forth or implied by such forward-looking statements and related assumptions due to certain factors, including, without limitation, competition in the ethanol, biodiesel and other industries in which we operate, commodity market risks including those that may result from current weather conditions, financial market risks, customer adoption, counter-party risks, risks associated with changes to federal policy or regulation, and other risks detailed in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC. We are not obligated, and do not intend, to update any of these forward-looking statements at any time unless an update is required by applicable securities laws.