Brazil’s Usacucar to mothball ethanol plant to focus on sugar - report

Brazilian firm Usacucar will mothball an ethanol plant and will shift the sugar cane from the fields around it to sugar production, Reuters reported last week.

The company has decided to idle the plant for the new cane crop from April to March due to the higher returns it receives from the production of sugar, its general manager, Roberto Cidade, was cited as saying.

The plant, with an annual capacity to crush 1.15 million tonnes of cane, is located in Sao Tome in the southern part of Parana state. The sugar cane around it will be transported to other mills that can make both sugar and ethanol.

Usacucar has a total of 10 mills in Parana and is constructing a new facility in the neighboring state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Reuters noted. Last year it produced 1.48 million tonnes of sugar, all for export.

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