"That reconfiguration allows us to focus on the profitable products that we wanted to maintain," ADM Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano told analysts on a conference call on Tuesday.

ADM has capacity to produce about 1.8 billion gallons of ethanol at its wet and dry corn mills, more than 10 percent of the 16 billion-gallon annual industry output. The company put its dry mills on the selling block last year but has yet to find a buyer.

Green Plains said it idled about 50 million gallons of capacity at nine plants during its second quarter.

The company said it was transitioning its plant in York, Neb., to industrial-grade ethanol that can be used in paint and cosmetic products and will eventually upgrade that facility to produce beverage ethanol.

Green Plains' profit margins in fuel ethanol in the second quarter averaged 7 cents per gallon, down from 15 cents per gallon in the same quarter last year. That ate in to returns, despite the company selling larger volumes of fuel in domestic and export markets.

"The ultimate weakness in the ethanol margin during the quarter was a result of too much ethanol being produced by the industry," GPRE Chief Executive Officer Todd Becker told analysts.

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