Sugarcane producers from Center-South Brazil delivered 3.02 million mt of sugar to the market in the first 15 days of July, up 55.6% compared with the same period in 2019, while total ethanol production reached 2.1 billion liters, down 2.31% on year, according to data released by sugarcane growers association UNICA July 24.
Sugar production between the beginning of the 2020-21 Center-South crop cycle on April 1 and July 16 totaled a combined 16.31 million mt, up 49.94% compared with the same period a year earlier, while total ethanol production fell 5.88% to 12.1 billion liters.
Compared with the expectations of analysts for the H1 July period surveyed by S&P Global Platts, the production numbers were little different.
The increase in sugar production is due to a combination of prices in the export market, favorable weather conditions and a higher volume of cane for crushing in the current crop cycle.
Producers from CS Brazil crushed 46.54 million mt of cane in H1 July or 13.52% more than in the same period of 2019, while the ATR — or total recoverable sugar — was 142.14/kg, up from 138.14/kg. Sources have been reporting that drier weather has been favoring a faster cane crush in the current cycle as well as a higher ATR.
The cumulative cane crush reached 275.95 million mt, up 6.52% from 2019.
"By the end of July, we might crush 50% of the total cane expected for the 2020-21 crop," said Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, UNICA technical director.
Since the beginning to the crop cycle, mills have been leaning more toward production of sugar than in previous years.
In H1 July, sugar accounted for 47.94% of the cane crush while since the crop cycle began, its share has been 46.69%. In the same period in 2019, sugar's share was 34.89%.
The move toward converting more cane into sugar is due to the price advantage exporting sugar retains over the domestic ethanol market.
Ethanol sales
Producers from the Center South reported selling 1.19 billion liters of ethanol in H1 July, a drop of 14.17% on the year.
Of those sales, 80.9 million liters were exported and the balance remained in the domestic market.
In the domestic market, hydrous ethanol sales reached 741.3 million liters or 19.23% less than in the same period of 2019, while anhydrous ethanol sales increased 2.28% to 369 million liters.
Demand for hand sanitizer is still supporting sales of non-fuel ethanol, which in H1 July rose 50.86% year on year to 60.9 million liters.
Cumulative ethanol sales since the start of the crop cycle by CS producers fell 21.48% on year to 7.56 billion liters, according to UNICA.
