Center-South Brazil produced 2.61 million mt of sugar in the first two weeks of October, taking the total since the start of the season on April 1 to 34.67 million mt, a jump of 45.92%, or 10.91 million mt, on the year, according to data released Oct. 27 by industry association UNICA.
UNICA's technical director, Antonio Rodrigues, said of the total increase that 8.08 million mt were due to a higher proportion of cane being used for sugar production and the rest reflected the better quality of the cane harvested.
Sugar production in the first half of October was 4.43% below the average of market expectations in an S&P Global Platts survey published Oct. 23.
In H1 October, 36.85 million mt of cane were harvested in CS Brazil, down 2.05% on the year. However, the total since April 1 was 5.06% higher on year at 538.13 million mt.
Platts Analytics estimates that 590 million mt of cane will be crushed in CS Brazil in the 2020-21 season, suggesting that 91.21% of the total sugarcane forecast has already been crushed.
Of the cane crushed in H1 October, 45.36% were used for sugar production, up from 34.61% a year earlier.
Since April, producers have been shifting more cane toward sugar production due to the premium paid for the sweetener on the export market to ethanol on the domestic market. Of the total cane crushed so far this season, 46.85% were used for sugar, up from 35.26% a year earlier.
Platts assessed hydrous ethanol in raw sugar equivalent on Oct. 26 at 11.27 cents/lb or $248.45/mt, while the front-month New York No. 11 raw sugar contract settled at 14.77 cents/lb a 3.50 cents/lb or $77.16/mt premium to domestic hydrous ethanol.
Total ethanol production in H1 October was 2.06 billion liters, down 10.42% on the year. Of this 1.29 billion liters were hydrous, 19.46% less year on year, and the balance of 762 million liters was anhydrous, up 10.72%.
Cumulative hydrous ethanol production since April 1 was 17.65 billion liters, a drop of 8.64% on year, while anhydrous production fell 4.82% to 7.91 billion liters.
Mills' sales
Ethanol sales reported by CS Brazilian mills in H1 October came to 1.28 billion liters, of which 68.81 million liters were exported and the bulk, 1.21 billion liters, was sold on the domestic market.
Of these domestic sales, hydrous accounted for 863 million liters, down 14% on the year and anhydrous 349 million liters, down 2.19%.
Hydrous sales reported by mills over April 1-Oct. 16 totaled 9.97 billion liters, a drop of 22% on the year. Cumulative anhydrous sales were down 7% at 4.45 billion liters.
Since the CS 2020-21 crop started, the total volume of ethanol sales reported by the production units has reached 15.94 billion liters, a drop of 15% year on year. Of that, 14.43 billion liters were sold to domestic consumers, and 1.51 billion liters were exported.
