Jun 25, 2010
Copersucar to Process 30% of Brazil's Sugarcane Within Five Years
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Copersucar continues its aggressive growth in the Brazilian sugarcane market. According to Paulo Roberto de Souza, president of the company, Copersucar plans to expand its sugarcane processing capacity by 75% over the next five years. During the 2010/11 growing season, they will process 85 million tons of sugarcane and that is expected to increase to 200 million tons by 2015. If realized, that would represent 30% of the sugarcane processed in Brazil.
The Copersucar holding company owns or operates 39 sugarcane processing plants in Brazil. During the 2010/11 growing season they expect to produce 4 billion liters of ethanol or approximately 22% of the ethanol produced in Brazil. The majority of ethanol produced by the company is consumed within Brazil, but longer term plans call for increased exports to California, Asia and Europe. Copersucar's sugar production in 2010/11 is expected to hit 6 million tons or 63% more than the 2009/10 growing season. The company's sugar exports from the 2009/10 growing season are expected to be 3.7 million tons or 15% of Brazil's total sugar exports.
Copersucar is the largest private sugar exporting company in the world and is responsible for 5% of the worldwide sugar exports. By 2013, the company has contracts to supply 200 million liters of ethanol to Japan per year. During the 2009/10 growing season, the company's total receipts were R$ 8.2 billion with 60% coming from ethanol production and 40% coming from sugar production.
Over the next five years the company plans to spend R$ 1 billion on infrastructure improvements, railroads, a sugar terminal at the Port of Santos, and the building of a 600 kilometer long pipeline to transport ethanol to the coast for export.