Brazil's Center-South region produced 244 million liters of hydrous ethanol in the first half of March, up 70% year on year and more than doubling from 109 million liters in the previous two-week period, industry association UNICA said Friday.
The stronger output is a response to higher hydrous prices in the intercrop season, which reached a record high of Real 2,320/cu m on an ex-mill Ribeirao Preto basis in the March 13-16 period, the highest since the S&P Global Platts assessment was launched April 2014.
UNICA also said that in the first half of March the amount of anhydrous ethanol that was reprocessed into hydrous reached almost 76 million liters.
Cumulative hydrous ethanol output in the 2017-18 season, which officially ends March 31, reached 15.2 billion liters, up 3% on the year, while anhydrous production of 10.4 billion liters is down 1% year on year.
The ethanol production figure usually includes ethanol made from corn feedstock. Since the 2017-18 season started, the amount of corn ethanol output has increased 2.2 times to a total of 490.2 million liters, comprising 407.6 million liters of hydrous and 82.6 million liters of anhydrous.
The amount of sugarcane crushed in H1 March was up 1.7% year on year at 3.3 million mt, and surging from 730,940 mt crushed in the previous two-week period.
As of mid-March, 42 units were still processing sugarcane in the Center-South, UNICA said. That compares with an estimated 38 sugar mills operating in this period last year, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.
Higher ethanol prices have prompted some producers to start harvesting and crushing the new 2018-19 Center-South crop before the official start date of April 1.
In H1 March 83.51% of the sugar cane crush was directed towards ethanol production, up from 75.95% a year ago.
The cumulative 2017-18 sugar cane crush in CS Brazil amounts to 588.47 million mt, down 1.8% year on year.
Cumulative sugar production totaled 35.9 million mt, up 1.5% from the previous season with a total of 46.72% of the sugar cane directed towards the sweetener output. This is up from 46.41% in the year-ago period.
Cumulative ATR for the season was 136.98 kg/mt, up 2.6% from year earlier and the highest cumulative ATR to March 16 since 137.54 kg/mt in the 2011-12 season.
ETHANOL SALES
Ethanol sales in H1 March reached 1.06 billion liters, with almost all of it -- 1.03 billion liters -- heading to the domestic market.
Hydrous ethanol sales to the domestic market totaled 657.4 million liters, up 33.2% and from a year ago and up year on year for the 10th consecutive two-week period.
"The ongoing strength in hydrous sales and the increased mix towards ethanol was already expected for the H1 of March due to more attractive hydrous prices in most of the Brazilian market," UNICA's technical director Antonio de Padua Rodrigues said.
From April 1, 2017 to March 16 this year, a total of 14.7 billion liters of hydrous have been sold to the domestic market, up 7% year on year.
Meanwhile, anhydrous sales to the domestic market of 9.04 billion liters in the 2017-18 season to date are almost 8% lower year on year.
Hydrous ethanol is mostly used as fuel in flex-fuel vehicles and competes with gasoline at the pump. Anhydrous is blended with gasoline at a 27% ratio, under a national mandate. Both products are also used in industry.
