April 4, 2007

Two Brazilian agribusiness firms eye 450 million real ethanol project
 

Sucral and Greentech, two Brazilian agribusiness consultancy firms, plan to invest in the construction of two new ethanol plants, local Valor Economico business daily reported Tuesday.

The total investment for both plants, to be built in the centre-west state of Mato Grosso do Sul, will be 450 million real (US$221 million), with 70 percent of that sum coming from Brazil's National Development Bank BNDES.

BNDES said it could not confirm the investment at this time, while Sucral was unavailable for comment.

Sucral, a consultancy firm specialising in the sugar and ethanol market, and Greentech, a consultancy firm specialising in renewable energy, will each hold 50 percent of the two factories, the paper reported.

Each factory will have a capacity to process 2 million tonnes of sugarcane, producing only anhydrous ethanol for the export markets.

Both factories are scheduled to start operation by 2010-11, with an early capacity to process 800,000 tonnes of sugarcane. The newspaper did not report when the factories will reach full capacity.

One factory will be built in the Selviria municipality, the other in the Inocencia municipality, both situated in the eastern part of Mato Grosso do Sul state. The investment is expected to create 1,500 new jobs in the region, the newspaper reported.

BNDES rose its loans for the sugarcane sector from 1.1 billion real, in 2005, to 2.1 billion real, in 2006, BNDES said in February. A recent study from the bank estimates that Brazil needs another 100 new ethanol mills just to guarantee supply for its own domestic flex-fuel car demand.