Ethanol sales by production units in central-south Brazil reduced declines amid the coronavirus pandemic, with an improvement in domestic demand and greater exports, data from the Sugarcane Industry Union (Unica) showed this Wednesday -fair.
The volume sold by the plants in the first fortnight of the month totaled 1.175 billion liters, a drop of 10.5% compared to the same period last year, considering hydrated and anhydrous ethanol in the domestic and foreign markets.
In May, however, when more segments of society were adopting social isolation measures, the reduction had been around 27%, compared to the same month last year.
If total sales to the domestic market still fell by 17% in the first half of June, they had registered a much greater drop in May, of 30%, according to data from Unica.
“The drop in sales of fuel ethanol observed in the 2020/21 harvest was partially offset by the greater demand for non-fuel alcohol and the greater volume destined for export”, said in a note the technical director of Unica, Antonio de Padua Rodrigues.
Sales for exports in the first half of June tripled compared to the same period last year, to almost 122 million liters, while in the accumulated harvest since April, they increased by almost 50%, to 350 million liters.
Considering total sales, for domestic and foreign markets in the accumulated harvest, Unica records a drop of 25%, to 5.15 billion liters.
On the other hand, sugar exports from the center-south, driven by advance sales and also by the exchange rate, rose more than 40% in the first fortnight, to 1 million tons, while they increased by 60.56% in the harvest up to June 16, with shipments of 4.88 million tons.
“In addition, the growing demand for Brazilian sugar, both in the domestic and foreign markets, neutralized part of the negative impact caused by the reduction in demand for ethanol”, said the director of Unica.
PRODUCTION
Sugarcane crushing in the center-south totaled 41.7 million tons in the first half of June, a drop of 1.91% over the same fortnight in the 2019/2020 harvest, which did not prevent the sector from increasing sugar production by 36.28% in the same period, to 2.5 million tons, reported .
On the other hand, ethanol production in the center-south in the period reached 1.8 billion liters, a drop of 13.77% in the annual comparison, with the sector allocating a smaller volume of sugarcane to the manufacture of biofuel, since sugar has guaranteed best deals.
The sugarcane production mix rose to 47.11% in the last fortnight, compared to 35.69% in the same period last harvest, while for ethanol it fell to 52.89%, according to Unica.
In the accumulated period since the beginning of the 2020/2021 harvest until June 16, sugar production reached 10.57 million tons, an increase of 57% compared to the 2019/2020 cycle.
Accumulated ethanol manufacturing totaled 8 billion liters (-3.7% in the annual comparison), of which 2.23 billion liters of anhydrous ethanol and 5.81 billion liters of hydrated ethanol.
“Sugar production has grown by around 57% to date, as a result of greater crushing, better quality of raw material, low demand for ethanol in the domestic market and more remunerative prices for the sweetener”, said Padua.
The quality of the raw material processed in the first half of June, measured based on the concentration of Total Recoverable Sugars (ATR), increased by 5.27%, reaching 136.04 kg per ton of sugar cane.
In the accumulated period since the beginning of the harvest until June 16, the indicator shows 128.75 kg of TRS per ton of sugar cane, an increase of 6.17% in relation to the value of the 2019/2020 harvest.
Source: Notícias Agrícolas
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