Brazil biofuel maker Odebrecht to invest USD 151.3m in Mato Grosso do Sul units by 2014 - report

Oct 17, 2013 - Brazilian biofuel producer Odebrecht Agroindustrial, former ETH Bionergia, plans to invest BRL 330 million (USD 151.3m/EUR 111m) in its three units in Mato Grosso do Sul by 2014, local sector news site JornalCana reported yesterday.

The investments seek to increase by more than 26% the production, expanding also the sugar cane planted area to 190,000 ha (469,500 acres) from 150,000 ha. Also, the company will install three new dehydration units at the plants.

At present, the three plants have capacity to crush over 12 million tonnes of sugar cane and to produce 920,000 cu m of ethanol.

The investments are part of a total BRL 1 billion spending announced in early 2013, which targets to increase the company's sugar cane planted area by 100,000 sq m and to complete the expansion of its total nine plants.

The company has plants in the states of Sao Paulo, Goias, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, able to crush 40 million tonnes of cane and to produce 3 billion litres (6.599m gallons) of ethanol, 3,100 GWh of electricity and more than 700,000 tonnes of sugar. Odebrecht invested over BRL 9 billion to achieve this capacity.

In crop year 2013/2014, the company expects to crush 26 million tonnes of cane, up 29% in comparison to the previous crop year, which will allow the production of 1.78 billion litres of ethanol, 580,000 tonnes of sugar and the co-generation of 2,500 GWh of electricity.

(BRL 1 = USD 0.459/EUR 0.336)

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