Brazil center-south sugar output rises to 270,000 T late in March

SAO PAULO: Brazil's center-south sugar output jumped to 270,000 tonnes in the second half of March from 73,000 tonnes in the previous fortnight as more mills started crushing in the world's largest cane producing region, industry group Unica said on Wednesday.

Center-south mills crushed 7.96 million tonnes of cane late in March compared with 3.26 million tonnes in the first half of the month. Ethanol production reached 327 million liters in the period versus 161 million liters early in March, said Unica.

Unica said 83 mills out of around 300 in the region were operating at the end of March from around 50 earlier in the month. It expects some 180 mills to be crushing early in April.

Although March is still considered the last month of the 2016/17 crop calendar, the market sees current operations as the starting point of the new season. That is why volumes continue to increase from the previous fortnights.

Brazil's 2016/17 center-south cane crop ended with total sugar output of 35.62 million tonnes, 14 percent more than in 2015/16 (see table below).

Cane crush reached 607.14 million tonnes in the 2016/17 crop, 1.7 percent less than the record of 617 million tonnes seen in the previous season. Mills ended the crop producing 25.65 billion liters of ethanol, 9.1 percent less than in 2015/16 as crushers focused on sugar production which gave better returns.