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1 August - Friday
Bunge Invests In Ethanol Plants
SAO PAULO, Jul 30, 2008
U.S.-based agribusiness company Bunge Ltd. (BG) plans to invest around 1 billion
Brazilian Reais (US$639 million) in three sugar and ethanol mills in the north
of Brazil, the daily newspaper Valor Economico reported Wednesday.
The first mill is expected to start operations in 2011, Valor quoted an official
of the Tocantins state government as saying. Bunge was unavailable for comment.
Bunge is also planting 2,200 hectares of sugarcane, which will be increased to
100,000 hectares, to supply the three mills in
Tocantins state,
according to Valor.
 31
July - Thursday
Brazil Cosan swings to Feb-Apr loss
SAO PAULO, July 30
(Reuters) - Cosan (CSAN3.SA: Quote, Profile, Research), Brazil's largest sugar
and ethanol group, swung to a net loss on Wednesday for the period between
February and April, due to falling international sugar prices and rising costs,
after a profit a year earlier.
Cosan said its net loss was 5.3 million reais ($3.39 million) for the period
after a 164.7 million reais profit at the same time last year.
28 July - Monday
ADM to start ethanol production in Brazil - report
SAO PAULO,
July 28 (Reuters) - U.S. food and grains company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM.N:
Quote,
Profile,
Research) will start
cane-based ethanol production in Brazil with local partners, a Brazilian
newspaper said on Monday.
The company will participate in
joint ventures to open two mills, both in center-western Goias state, financial
newspaper Valor Economico said.
Each mill will have capacity to crush 3 million to 4 million tonnes of cane per
year. The first one should come on stream in 2010, the newspaper said, adding
the investment was expected to be announced officially in August.
A spokesman at ADM's local subsidiary would not confirm the information.
A leading corn-based ethanol producer in the United States, ADM had been looking
for opportunities to enter the Brazilian ethanol market for years, market
sources say.
The company already is a top grain processor and trading house in the South
American country. (Reporting by Inae Riveras; Editing by Walter Bagley)
11 July - Friday
Brazil can increase leadership in ethanol market
SÃO PAULO, 7/10/08 - The
International Energy Agency (AIE) said that Brazil has conditions to increase
the leadership in the world's ethanol market. According to the agency, the
country will continue to benefit from production costs, agriculture and
infrastructure advantages.
AIE's report indicates that global biofuels production should grow sharply in
2008 and 2009. Ethanol and biodiesel production will rise from 1.35 million
barrels per day in 2008 to 1.69 million barrels per day in 2009. The United
States will account for approximately 50% of this growth, while 25% will come
from Brazil. (newsroom/cferreira - InvestNews)
3 July - Thursday
Petrobras & Mitsui Invest in Goiás
RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow
Jones)--Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR), or Petrobras,
and Japan's Mitsui & Co. (8031.TO) announced Wednesday that the companies will
invest in an ethanol project in Goias
state.
According to a statement, the two companies will partner with Itaruma
Participacoes SA to produce 200,000 cubic meters of ethanol from sugar cane
annually.
Petrobras didn't disclose the amount it was investing in the project.
In March, Petrobras and Mitsui created a joint venture for investments in
renewable energy called Participacoes Nippo Brasileira em Complexos
Bioenergeticos SA. The joint venture aims to take stakes in ethanol mills, with
the goal of reaching the capacity to produce 4.5 billion liters of ethanol.
Brazil is the world's second-largest producer of ethanol and its biggest
exporter.
"Petrobras and Mitsui decided to invest in the project, considering its
environmental and economic feasibility, as well as the great potential to export
Brazilian ethanol to meet global demand for renewable energy," Petrobras said in
a statement.
Ethanol - Demand boosts
values at the end of the month
Different from what happened at the beginning of June, Brazilian ethanol prices
moved up in the second fortnight of the month, boosted by the firm demand, both
in domestic and international markets.
Between June 23rd and 27th, the CEPEA/ESALQ Index for the hydrated (Sao Paulo
state) averaged 0.7231 real or 0.4517 dollar per liter (excluding taxes),
increasing 6.76 percent in Real over the previous week. For the anhydrous, the
raise was of 6.51 percent in Real, at 0.8207 real or 0.5126 dollar per liter
(excluding taxes).
The monthly Index for the anhydrous averaged 0.7870 real or 0.4858 dollar per
liter (excluding taxes), dropping 4.2 percent in Real in relation to May. The
monthly Index for the hydrated decreased 4.56 percent in Real considering the
same period, at 0.6653 real or 0.4107 dollar per liter (excluding taxes). (Cepea
– Brazil)
13 June - Friday
Petrobras' 1st ethanol pipeline, mill
ready in '09
SAO PAULO, June 12 (Reuters)
- Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras said it will complete its first of
two ethanol-only pipelines and first ethanol mill in 2009, a company official
said on Thursday.
It will be Petrobras' first step into ethanol production although the company
for decades has been a leading player in Brazil's distribution and retail of the
biofuel.
Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(PBR.N: Quote,
Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it signed its first contract in May with a
local ethanol company to build a distillery that will come on line next year and
produce biofuel that will be directed to the export market.
Petrobras' downstream director, Paulo Roberto Costa, said two companies will be
created to operate each of the two pipelines the company intends to build.
The first one, to be concluded in 2009, would run between the center-west state
of Goias and Paulinia, in Sao Paulo state.
(click
for full article)
11 June - Wednesday
Biofuels in Brazil and the Rest of the World
Blog of
LUIZ CEZAR FERNANDES,
MARAMBAIA CAPITAL
There is no doubt that Brazil
jumped in first place in the biofuels race, thanks to the Ethanol Brazilian
Program in the seventies and eighties (as a reaction to the oil crises of 1973
and 1979) and thanks of course to some entrepreneurs who decided to bet on the
production of ethanol since then and more recently on biodiesel. One of the
legends is that biodiesel was invented in the seventies by a Brazilian, Prof.
Expedito Parente of Ceara Federal University, but did not succeed then because
the price of oil went up “only” up to 30 dollars in 1979. The major ethanol
producing companies are in Brazil – Cosan is the more famous example – and there
are even huge biodiesel companies like Brasil Ecodiesel.
(click for
full article)
 28 May - Wednesday
The sweet
hereafter
Biofuels are
now seen as polluting and as a threat to forests and food production. But Brazil
is still pinning its hopes on becoming a big player in sustainable sugarcane
ethanol and related technology. Jan Rocha reports
Brazil's ambitious plans for supplying the world with renewable sugarcane
ethanol have been put on hold as criticism of biofuels escalates. Instead of
being seen as a solution, biofuels have become the new villains of the energy
scene and are now blamed for everything from hunger to climate change itself.
"A few years ago, we thought biofuels were heaven, but now we think they are
hell," says Anders Wijkman, an MEP from Sweden, which is the only European
country that already imports Brazilian ethanol for its public transport system.
"I think the truth is somewhere in between."
(Go to Article)
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