Plunging commodity prices claimed a casualty on Tuesday after Biofuel Energy, one of the biggest independent US ethanol producers, said millions of dollars of losses on hedges designed to protect against the rising cost of corn and natural gas had left it short of cash.

Biofuel’s shares plunged more than 60 per cent after it warned that it lacked short-term liquidity to cover a combined $46m in realised and mark-to-market losses on its hedging contracts.