2006-07 BRAZILIAN SUGARCANE HARVEST SETS RECORD AT 475 MILLION TONS

Via Ethanol Brasil

Arab-Brazilian News Agency
November 30^th, 2006

Sao Paulo – Brazilian sugarcane production for the 2006-07 period is expected to come in at 475.7 million tons, according to an assessment carried out by Cohab, the Brazilian National Supply Company (Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento). The current production is the largest in history and is 10.3% above the previous harvest, which totaled 431.4 million tons.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

ANHYDROUS ETHANOL IN BRAZIL AT LOWEST PRICE SINCE SEPTEMBER 05

Via Ethanol Brasil

After two months of stability, ethanol prices took a dip last week. The ESALQ/CEPEA index for anhydrous ethanol dropped 1.32%, listing a weekly average of R$0.85204 per liter (~US$0.40), before taxes. This is the lowest nominal value recorded since September 2005. Hydrous ethanol was at R$0.74903 per liter (~US$0.35), a drop of 1.25%.

An increase in supply put pressure on prices, even as mills headed toward the end of the milling season. Distribution centers, on their turn, did not show any great interest in picking up the excess.

All data are from CEPEA - Centro de Estudos Avançados em Economia Aplicada (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics).

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

ROBERTO RODRIGUES, BRAZIL’S FORMER MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, STARTS NEW VENTURE IN BIOFUELS

From IstoE Dinheiro Rural (a prime agribusiness publication)
November 2006 edition

(Note: Read interview with Roberto Rodrigues at the end of the article)

Go to original

Roberto Rodrigues, after serving for almost four years as Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture, is about to launch a new fund to finance projects in ethanol and biodiesel.

By Fabiane Stefano

The life of former minister Roberto Rodrigues is as busy as when he was in command of Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture. In the past, as a government officer, Rodrigues met daily with businesspeople, representatives of rural associations, and farmers.

Now, he follows the same disciplined routine – but on the other side of the table. After almost four years as Minister of Agriculture, and a sabbatical of four months, Rodrigues is once again active, working as a university professor, community organizer, and, for the first time, as an entrepreneur in the agribusiness industry.

Mr. Rodrigues, an agricultural engineer, is setting up an investment fund to finance projects in ethanol and biodiesel. In an interview with ISTOE DINHEIRO RURAL magazine, Mr. Rodrigues gives details about his plan, which will use both Brazilian and foreign capital. “People who invest along with me have a good chance at success”, says the former minister. “I won’t let them plant sugarcane where it won’t grow. Nor will they sell ethanol at the wrong time. It’s very sound, and, at the same time, very, very serious”.

Rodrigues will act as a fund manager, bringing together the financial and technical areas. He will also give the final word on the selected projects. “I have been talking to Brazilian and foreign banks”, he says. He plans to launch the fund by the beginning of December.

The most attractive factor is the name of Rodrigues himself. In addition to having served as Minister of Agriculture, he is an agricultural engineer and is considered one of the main rural leaders in Brazil, having presided over organizations such as the Brazilian Rural Society and the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives.

There is no shortage of parties interested in doing business with him. At the beginning of October, a director from Holland’s Rabobank sent the former minister an email stating that he was interested in coming to Brazil to discuss the fund.

“I can attract investors who are really committed to the project”, says Mr. Rodrigues.

For the time being, the former minister does not want to talk about numbers. But he hints that the fund should be launched with at least $200 million. “With $150 million, for instance, it would be possible to build a profitable plant, with a milling capacity of two million tons of sugarcane per year”.

The fund, however, won’t limit its activities to agroindustrial activities. It may also act in the acquisition of land and in participations in other ventures through stock acquisitions. Even a foray into stock exchanges has been contemplated. “I want to head a project that involves the entire productive chain behind agroenergy”.

In addition to his business venture, Mr. Rodrigues has taken up, once again, institutional and academic roles. He has been invited by the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo (Federacao das Industrias do Estado de Sao Paulo) – FIESP to preside over the organization’s Agribusiness Board (“Conselho Superior de Agronegocios”). The goal of the Board is to present proposals to state and federal governments to develop the agribusiness chain. In his very fist work meeting, at the beginning of November, Rodrigues will introduce Silvio Crestana, president of Embrapa, who will give a presentation on technology used out in the field. The idea behind the presentation is to convince almost a hundred Board members to approve the creation of a research fund with privately-owned monies.

Mr. Rodrigues will also head the recently-created Center for Agribusiness Studies (Centro de Estudos no Agronegocio) from Fundacao Getaulio Vargas (FGV), one of Brazil’s leading business schools.

The former minister’s presence at FIESP and FGV will create synergy between the two institutions. The ultimate goal is for FGV to carry out the studies that will allow for the execution of proposals coming from FIESP. Mr. Rodrigues will work pro bono in both capacities. “I don’t want to be the president of anything in the future”, he says.

It is precisely as a counselor that Mr. Rodrigues will participate in the Board of Directors of Agrenco, a multinational company that deals in grains and is currently expanding its activities in Brazil.

As an academic, Mr. Rodrigues will continue teaching a course on the management of cooperatives at Unesp, a university located in the city of Jaboticabal. Even in the days when he was Minister, the professor never stopped teaching the course, one that is always in high demand by students, in spite of its academic rigor.

Mr. Rodrigues has also taken up a position as a researcher for the Institute for Advanced Studies at USP, Latin America’s largest university, where he will coordinate multidisciplinary projects in geopolitics and economics. “The first project will analyze the true environmental impact of agriculture in the Amazon region”, he says.

Another field in which the former minister has taken up a role is the lucrative lecture circuit. As a gifted public speaker, Mr. Rodrigues will talk about agribusiness to companies and institutions, for a fee. “I was a bit hesitant to charge, because I have been doing it for free all my life”, he says.

Even with so many engagements in his new life as a private citizen, Mr. Rodrigues will continue to make frequent visits to Fazenda Santa Isabel, his farm in Jaboticabal. Dedicated to the production of sugarcane, the family property is managed by his son, Paulo, who is also an agricultural engineer.

At the farm, in a den full of memories of his rural upbringing and past, the former minister corresponds with people from all over the world. Every three months, he writes a letter to over one-hundred former classmates from his college days. The quiet of the farm also allows him to devote time to the four books he is currently writing. Two of them gather articles that he has written over forty years of a life dedicated to rural Brazil: one about agribusiness, another on cooperatives. Mr. Rodrigues has also been working on a novel. The theme? Agribusiness, of course, but from the point-of-view of four friends bonded by a secret. Yet another pretext to talk about his favorite subject.

INTERVIEW:

Roberto Rodrigues gave an exclusive interview to ISTOE DINHEIRO RURAL and spoke about his plans in the private sector, the largest of which has to do with a project in the sugar and ethanol industry.

The whole world is paying more attention to ethanol. Is agroenergy the wave of the future?

It certainly isn’t a fad. The central issue if the supply of energy. I was never a supporter of the idea that humanity should depend on a fossil product, one that is finite, poorly-distributed, and explored by a very small number of people. After World War I, civilization was built on oil. I protested that idea in the 70s. I have spent a lifetime defending agroenergy. And now I believe we are on the threshold of a new civilization.

What is Brazil’s role in the sector?

Brazil has real competitive advantages. I believe we can double the production of ethanol per hectare in Brazil. With climate and logistics, there is a 50% chance of a project working out. Land is no longer relevant. The other 50% have to do with technology and management. And we have technological standards capable of winning this war.

Can’t this rapid expansion in sugarcane lead to problems in the future?

What bothers me most is that the whole issue is seen by some as a passing fad. There are many foreign investors who want to be in Brazil. And that may make a poorly-executed project look better than it really is. A severe agricultural crisis has to do with abundance, not scarcity. Scarcity can be taken care of in six months. Abundance takes five years. In ten years, we will have a lot of ethanol. If the investor carries out a project on land with a low yield, he may go bankrupt. So he has to be very careful.

In the future, will the sugar and ethanol industry make as much money as now?

If things are done properly, the farmer may not make as much money, but he certainly won’t go broke. I have experienced two crises firsthand. And I can tell you: it is not easy. We cannot throw away the chance of developing a much larger, universal project, simply because of hastiness and unchecked ambitions.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

AGRICULTURAL PLANNING: THE SECRET BEHIND BRAZIL’S ETHANOL SUCCESS

Go to original

By Marcelo A. Coelho

An old Brazilian saying goes, “Toss a seed into the soil and it shall grow”.

Thirty years after the inception of Pro-Alcool, Brazil’s federal ethanol program, agricultural techniques have advanced by large strides, making the planting of feedstocks a very precise science. It is no longer sufficient to throw a seed into the ground for it to sprout, as had been the case since Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese in 1500.

When contemplating plans for establishing an ethanol-producing industrial unit, other elements now come into play: sugar-producing capacities, energy sources, carbon credits, yeasts, fine chemicals, and biodiesel production – all of these are complementary, self-reinforcing elements that have to be assessed as a whole when selecting the right land for industrial development.

Logistics issues (side roads, highways, railways, access to ports, etc.), water systems (sources, rivers, lakes, or any spring on a farm property), soil analysis (chemical and physical properties of the soil), and terrain (topography), climate and precipitation characteristics, in addition to Brazilian legal constraints regarding the environment, are all factors that determine whether a certain property is right or not for a given project.

Once this information has been assessed, and any necessary adjustments have been made, then the “Agricultural Plan” may be drawn up. The Plan contemplates the harvesting schedule, agricultural equipment, reaping methods (mechanized or non-mechanized), the different types of sugarcane to be planted, the development of seedbeds, labor requirements (amount, sourcing) – all these items are taken into consideration.

The Agricultural Plan allows investors to calculate the requirements for milling equipment (at present and in future expansions), and, as a result, the scale and scope of distillation and co-generation equipment (distillation columns, conveyor belts, choppers, tanks, sugar driers, turbines and cauldrons, activating mechanisms, etc.), as well as of output (fuel ethanol, neutral ethanol, sugar, yeasts, etc.).

In short, the Agricultural Plan and the studies that precede it are the most important item of a business plan in the sugar and ethanol industry. They also substantiate other items, such as industrial and operational plans, human resources, market analyses, marketing studies, product assessments, financial plans, environmental issues, and social responsibility projects.

In Brazil, a few companies stand out in the execution of these preliminary studies. One of them is Marchini do Brasil, which has operated out of the city of Ribeirao Preto, interior of Sao Paulo state, for over thirty years.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

BRAZIL TO SIGN INTO LAW REQUIREMENT THAT GASOLINE CONTAIN 23% ETHANOL, UP FROM 20%

As in many other democracies, Brazilian laws are written by legislators in Congress, then sent to the Brazilian President to be signed.

Once signed, they go into effect. But they only really become the law of the land once they come off the press at the “Diario Oficial da Uniao” (“Official Daily of the Brazilian Union”), the publication that lists, among other items, new laws, public biddings, appointments to offices, and anything else that concerns the Executive branch in Brazil.

On Monday, November 20th, 2006, the “Diario” will announce that the federal government of Brazil heretofore requires that all gasoline sold in Brazil be 23 parts ethanol and 77 parts actual gasoline.

Known by Brazilians as “gasoline” because it is the only alternative to hydrous ethanol for fueling cars and light trucks, the product is called “gasohol” in the U.S. and would be dubbed E23 by most experts.

With a stroke of the pen, Brazil has now managed to reduce its gasoline consumption by 3.75%.

(To read the actual law, click on the link above on Monday, November 20th, and use the site's search function)

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

BRAZIL-ITALY SEMINAR DISCUSSES OUTLOOK FOR ETHANOL, BIODIESEL

BioEnergy World 2006 is the name of the event that will be held between Novermber 29^th and December 3^rd, 2006, at the Fiesta Bahia Hotel, in the city of Salvador, located in northeastern Brazil, in the state of Bahia. Speakers will address issues such as liquid biofuels (biodiesel and bioethanol); biogas, produced from animal and vegetable byproducts; biopellets (wooden pellets that come from sustainably-grown sources); gasification; electricity cogeneration from agricultural residues through gasification and clean development mechanisms.

On December 1^st, an overview of bioenergy in Bahia will be presented. Specific possibilities of cooperation between Italy and Brazil will also be addressed. On December 2^nd, technical visits will be offered.

The seminar is being organized by BioEnergy Events & Services (BEES), which belongs to Consultoria Empresarial Brasil-Itália (Cebi). The state government of Bahia is also promoting the event. Call +5521 2233-8002, or email info@bioenergy-world.com.br.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

BRAZIL’S PETROBRAS TO BUILD ETHANOL PIPELINE

Brazil’s largest oil company plans 800-mile pipeline to transport ethanol from Brazil’s interior to ports.

Henrique Oliveira

Petrobras is preparing to begin construction on its single largest project since it developed a gas pipeline between Bolivia and Brazil, in 1992. The line will carry ethanol produced in the municipality of Senador Canedo, in Goias state, to the Paulinia refinery, in Sao Paulo, and, from there, to the port of Sao Sebastiao.

The project is expected to be concluded in two years, and will use 180,000 tons of carbon steel tubes, laid out over approximately 800 miles. 10,000 men will work on the project, which will also include compression and leakage measurement stations. The cost of the project, estimated at R$ 500 million (~US$ 235 million) will be picked up by Transpetro, a Petrobras subsidiary. The line will serve exclusively ethanol plants producing for international markets, transporting 4 billion liters of ethanol at full capacity.

On its web site, Transpetro speaks at great technical length about the project in a very complete document, which can be read by clicking here.

I have previously shown, by presenting data collated and analyzed by Prof. Jose Goldemberg, the former president of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), the largest in Latin America, that the long-run average cost of ethanol declined 75% in 25 years, from US$680/cubic meter in 1978 to about US$200/cubic meter today.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

GEORGE SOROS STEPS UP INVESTMENTS IN BRAZILIAN ETHANOL

IstoE Dinheiro Rural (a major Brazilian finance magazine)
by Fabiane Stefano and Lívia Andrade

Go to original

George Soros is a changed man. The investor who once made a big-time bet against the Bank of England, and reaped a big reward, is now investing in Brazilian agribusiness - even though he also bet against the Brazilian currency in 2002.

At 76, with a net worth of approximately US$ 7.6 billion, Soros joins a distinguished team of foreign billionaires who are investing in Brazilian ethanol.

The team includes Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

Like them, Soros has been touched by the magic of the green fuel from Brazil. He is investing in three sugar and ethanol plants in Mato Grosso do Sul state, currently under construction. The investments total US$ 900 million; the plants will have a joint processing capacity of 11 million tons of sugarcane per year and will produce 1 billion liters of ethanol.

In addition to ethanol, the Hungarian financier’s company, Adeco, is also investing in cotton and coffee in Brazil. “When the company becomes fully operational, revenues from Brazilian operations will equal those coming from Argentina”, says Marcelo Vieira, Soros’ main partner in Brazil. The billionaire’s rural operations in Argentina have already reached US$ 30 million in earnings.

Soros’ foray into agribusiness is recent and began in Argentina. In 2001, the financier followed his gut feeling and began buying Argentinean land in the middle of the economic crisis that crippled the country. He quickly became one of the biggest individual land-owners in the country. In 2002, along with American investors, Soros bought Pecom Agribusiness (the rural subsidiary of Perez Companc) for approximately US$ 25 million, giving birth to Adenco. Today the company has over 100,000 hectares for beef and dairy cattle, soy, corn, wheat, rice, and sunflowers, producing over 200,000 tons of grain per year.

It wasn’t long before the company from Argentina took interest in its South American neighbor. Adeco landed in Brazil in 2004 and, since then, has been making inroads into the Brazilian countryside with the same appetite that he displays at stock exchanges around the world. The first acquisitions in Brazil took place in the states of Tocantins and Bahia, where 27,000 hectares produce mostly cotton and coffee.

“We invest in the crops in which Brazil is the most competitive”, explains Leonardo Berri, Adeco’s general manager in Brazil. “That is why we have a five-year expansion plan for cotton and coffee”. Adeco’s biggest bet, however, happened in February 2006. Soros’ company associated itself with Usina Monte Alegre, which belongs to the Vieira family, a traditional coffee-growing clan from Minas Gerais state. Located in the southernmost portion of that state, the unit can mill one million tons of sugarcane annually. When acquiring the plant, part of the family’s shareholders became partners at Adeco and began managing the company in Brazil. Among them was Marcelo Vieira, a mechanical engineer with over thirty years’ experience in the sugar and ethanol business. Today he is a considered a role model for new leaders in Brazil’s countryside. He began an initiative to bring together a group of coffee growers from Minas Gerais state to produce and market premium coffee. Mr. Vieira founded the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA), in 1991, an organization that actively marketed the fallen image of Brazilian coffee and helped spark a renaissance in the area. “Mr. Vieira is changing the industry by adopting modern managerial practices”, says Luiz Hafers, the former president of the Brazilian Rural Society. According to Mr. Vieira’s handbook, Adeco needs to invest in areas that have great potential for developing new technologies. He also takes corporate governance issues into consideration. “We have a great concern for sustainable production, and we strive to be correct in both the social and environmental dimensions”, says Mr. Vieira. “We believe in direct planting and use pesticides as sparingly as possible”, explains Leonardo Berridi, Adeco’s general manager in Brazil.

Vieira remains at the head of the group’s sugar and ethanol activities. He is currently supervising the group’s expansion in Angelica, in Mato Grosso do Sul state. Sugarcane has already been planted this year; a seedbed that occupies 900 hectares will supply the material for planting 6,000 hectares next year. Factory construction will begin in 2007, with operations scheduled to begin in 2008. The Monte Alegre plant, in Minas Gerais state, should reach full capacity in two years. At that point, the company’s four plants in Brazil will be milling 12 million tons. Recent international focus on renewable fuels has added momentum to Adeco’s operations. At the end of September, Soros’ company announced in New York that it will begin construction on a plant for corn-based ethanol.

50 million tons of corn will be processed, harvested from an area of 50,000 hectares, generating 200,000 cubic meters of ethanol. The possibility of building similar plants in Argentina is also being probed.

In spite of Soros’ great leverage in Latin American agribusiness, his personal participation in the company’s day-to-day affairs is small. “He is a shareholder and has great enthusiasm for the project”, says Mr. Vieira. “But he does not take part directly in the company’s affairs”.

Mr. Soros has recently turned his attention to philanthropy. Through the Soros Foundation Network, he created the “Open Society Institute”, which acts all around the world in education, health, and culture.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT EXPECTS TO HARVEST 1 BILLION TONS OF SUGARCANE BY 2015

(Note: a good back of the envelope calculation to compare oil and sugarcane ethanol is that one ton of the feedstock produces the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil. This figure does not take into account the bagasse and the straw, which account for 2/3 of the plant’s total energy content).

Henrique Oliveira

In order to raise output to meet rising world demand for ethanol, Brazilian agents, in the public and private sectors, are contemplating both the expansion of cultivated area and enhanced efficiency in the sugarcane-growing and ethanol-producing processes.

There is an abundance of land for sugarcane, which yields eight times more energy than corn. To understand by just how much Brazil can increase its output, look no further than the example of Sao Paulo state, which produces 60% of Brazil’s ethanol – and occupies just under 3% of the country’s territory.

Government agents, however, have not been counting solely on an expansion of planted area to increase output. They have also been committing larger sums to R&D in agronomy, with institutions such as the ESALQ (the acronym, in Portuguese, for the Luis de Queiroz Higher School of Agronomy) garnering international attention (the institution’s agents, incidentally, conduct weekly reviews of ethanol prices and have become the de facto setters of the commodity’s price in Brazil). Among other activities, ESALQ develops new strains of sugarcane.

Refineries have also learned to reduce costs by burning the sugarcane after it has been crushed and its juice, extracted. The crushed sugarcane, known as bagasse, today accounts for 8% of a refinery’s revenues, as the excess power generated can be sold to the national electricity grid.

And Brazilian government agencies have been working with foreign institutions to help other countries produce sugarcane at industrial levels. This mitigates the risk inherent to relying on sugarcane for ethanol and boosts confidence in the fuel’s capability to meet international energy requirements.

Brazil’s IEA (Agricultural Economics Institute), an institute within the Agriculture and Supply Secretariat of the State of Sao Paulo, has projected that the country will bring in close to one billion tons in the 2015-16 harvest, which is expected to cover an area of 12.2 million hectares.

Factors taken into account include the development of technologies to produce ethanol through the hydrolysis of bagasse and sugarcane straw, a process which may reduce the pressure to expand the use of land. Changes in the labor structure within the industry, which is increasingly mechanized, may also contribute to reduced expansion (and increased conservation of impacted ecosystems).

Other factors contemplated by IEA in its forecast include domestic delays in implementing ethanol programs, protectionist barriers in the U.S. and Europe, and demand for sugar on international markets. More information is available on IEA’s website.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

EARLY HARVEST FOR BRAZILIAN SUGARCANE

From "Valor Economico", Brazil's leading financial daily

Go to original

The sugarcane harvest in Brazil’s Center-South, measured until the first of October, 2006, hit 292.2 million tons, a 10.6% increase in relation to the same period last year, according to the Union of Sugarcane Growers of the State of Sao Paulo (UNICA).

This result represents 79% of the total harvest, which came in at 370.6 million tons. 20.9 million tons of sugar were produced, as were 12.4 billion liters of ethanol. Future prices for sugar at NYMEX closed the day unchanged yesterday (October 12^th, 2006), after the sharp drop the previous day. Contracts for May, at the close of the session, were at US$ 0.1130 per pound. In London, contracts for March closed at US$ 352.30 per ton, an increase of US$ 1.30. In Sao Paulo, the sack closed at R$ 37.34 (~US$ 17.37) on Wednesday, according to Cepea/Esalq.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

49 SUGAR SHIPS LINED UP IN BRAZILIAN PORTS

The line-up for ships waiting to load sugar counted 49 vessels in Brazil’s main port this week, compared to 48 last week, according to an assessment carried out by Williams Brazil.

In the port of Santos, the largest in Latin America, there were 27 ships, compared to 31 in the previous week. Santos was responsible for 71% of sugar shipments this week.

In the port of Paranagua, Parana state, there were nine ships, the same number as in the previous week.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

FENASUCRO 2007 PROMISES TO SHATTER 06 RECORDS

Early birds, take note:

Name: Fenasucro - XIV International Sugar And Ethanol Industrial Fair
Type: Technical-Business Promotion Fair
Place: Zanini Exhibition Center – Sertaozinho / Sao Paulo / Brasil
Scope: International
Date: TBA
Hours: 2 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Entry time for pre-registered personnel: 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Exhibition Area: 130.000 square meters
Number of exhibitors: approximately 600
Estimated number of public visitors: 60.000 visitors

Simultaneous Events:
Brazil Sugarcane Technological Innovations Symposium – STAB

Sponsored by:
CEISE: Industry Center of Sertãozinho and Region

Supported by:
CIESP: Sao Paulo State Industry Center
FIESP: Sao Paulo State Industry Federation
STAB: Brazilian Society of Sugar and Alcohol Industry Technicians
SEBRAE-SP: Brazilian Small Business Support Service for the Sao Paulo State
UNICA: Sao Paulo Sugarcane Agricultural Industry Union
Sertaozinho Municipality

Promotion and Sales:
Multiplus Ltda.
55 16 3623-8936

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

SILICON VALLEY BUSINESSMEN TOUR BRAZIL ETHANOL

A group of businessmen from California traveled to Brazil for a seminar that ended on September 22nd, 2006. The seminar centered around renewable energy sources and biofuels and was organized by the International Business Center (Centro Internacional de Negocios - CIN), a partnership between the Federation of The Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN) and Rio's SEBRAE, a federal-level organization that assists small and medium enterprises.

The group, which counted fourteen participants, also visited the R&D center of the Brazilian state-owned oil company (Petrobras), in the city of Rio de Janeiro; the National Reference center on Hydrogen Energy, at UNICAMP, in the city of Campinas, interior of Sao Paulo state; ESALQ (Escola Superior de Agricultura Luis de Queiroz), which conducts a weekly survey of the price of ethanol in different parts of Brazil; the COSAN group, Brazil's largest sugar and ethanol company; biodiesel maker Fertibom, in Catanduva, interior of Sao Paulo state; and Dedini, the industrial giant that manufactures most of the industrial equipment used in ethanol and sugar-producing facilities.

The mission was organized by Global California and the Silcon Valley for International Trade Development (SVCITD), organizations connected to West Valley Community College. Sebrae's communication agency reports that the group was researching investment opportunities in the biofuels and renewable energy industries.

According to SVCITD's web site, each participant paid US$ 2,495 and included "energy companies, manufacturers, farmers, VCs, and banks interested in exploring potential opportunities in the renewable energy sector in Brazil".

Henrique Oliveira

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

FENASUCRO: THE WORLD’S LARGEST EVENT IN SUGAR AND ETHANOL

My comments on the piece below:

While this news item is essentially a translation of the website's Portuguese version, it contains some interesting pieces of information. Most people in the U.S. and elsewhere will not recognize the vast majority of names in the list of participating companies, which follows the last chart.

If you look closely enough, however, you will find names like GE, Shell, Texaco, and Toyota, to name only a few. H.O.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 14^th. edition of Fenasucro, the Brazilian National Fair of Sugar and Ethanol, and the IV Sugarcane Technology Business Fair were held simultaneously from 19 to 22 September, 2006, in the city of Sertaozinho, near the city of Ribeirao Preto, in the interior of Sao Paulo state.

Both fairs were attended by over 55 thousand people, a number that came in at 10% above initial forecasts. The large number of visitors, which included people from all parts of the world, including the U.S., India, and Australia, demonstrates the elevated demand for Brazilian ethanol and ethanol-related products and services.

A total of 55o companies set up booths at the fairs.

Number of visitors in past events:















List of participating companies:

A. GUERRA S/A É PAZ NA ESTRADA
ABB
ABIMAQ
ACATEC
ACE SCHMERSAL
ACESITA
ACIONAC
AÇOBRIL
AÇOFERA
AÇOFORJA
ACOFREM DO BRASIL
AÇOMETAL
ACQUAQUIMICA - SETA
AEROELETRÔNICA IND. COMPONENTES AVIÔNICOS S/A
AESA
AFC DO BRASIL - VENTILADORES
AFIAR FERRAMENTAS
AGCO DO BRASIL LTDA
AGECOM
AGF BRASIL
AGRO-FOL
AGROSYSTEM
ALCOLINA
ALFA LAVAL
ALFATERM
ALLPROT
ALLTEC QUÍMICA
ALPHA EQUIPAMENTOS ELÉTRICOS LTDA
ALPHAPNEUS
ALPINA
ALVENIUS EQUIPAMENTOS TUBULARES
ANAEROBICOS DO BRASIL
ANDRITZ SEPARATION
ANHEMBI BORRACHA
ANTARES ACOPLAMENTOS
ANTICORROSIVA
APV SOUTH AMÉRICA
ARCA RETENTORES
ARINOX
ART ARATROP INDUSTRIAL
ASCOVAL INDUSTRIA E COMÉRCIO LTDA
ASTÉCNICA
ATA ANTONIOSI
ATB BALDAN
ATP REPRESENTAÇÃO
AUBERT
AUTEQ COMPUTADORES E SISTEMAS
AUTHOMÁTHIKA - SISTEMAS DE CONTROLE
AYRESTECH
B.BOSCH GALVANIZAÇÃO DO BRASIL LTDA.
BAL ICS
BALANÇAS AÇÔRES
BALANÇAS SATURNO
BANDEIRANTES PRODUTOS
BASEQUÍMICA
BAUER IRRIGATION
BAUKO MAQUINAS
BELENUS
BERACA SABARÁ
BERG-STEEL
BIG TECNOLOGIA
BIOCHAMM CALDEIRAS
BNDES
BOMBAS ANDRADE
BORTOLOT
BOSCH REXROTH
BRACOL
BRAPENTA
BRASBOM BOMBAS DE VÁCUO E DOSADORAS
BRASIF
BRAY CONTROLS
BREMEN IMPORTADORA
BREVINI LATINO AMERICANA
BRUMAZI EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS
BS
BUCKMAN LABORATÓRIOS LTDA.
BUSSOLA FERRAMENTAS
C.S.J. - METALÚRGICA
CALDEMA
CANTRAC
CARAVELA
CARBINOX
CARTHOM'S
CASA DOS ROLAMENTOS
CASALE EQUIPAMENTOS
CASE IH
CASTROL INDUSTRIAL
CEISE/CIESP
CELMAR
CÉLULA AUTOMAÇÃO INDUSTRIAL
CENTURY ALTA TECNOLOGIA EM BOMBAS
CESTARI
CETEC
CFM DO BRASIL
CHOICE VIKA CONTROLS
CIBA ESPECIALIDADES QUÍMICAS
CITROTEC
CIVEMASA
CLARK-KOCH
COAGRIL COMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL AGRICOLA LTDA.
COESTER AUTOMAÇÃO
COMANBOR
COMEGA
CONAUT
CONSTRUTEC
CONTECH
CONTEMP
CONTROL SYSTEM
COOPERCITRUS-VALTRA
COOPERTOOLS
COPERCANA
COREMAL
CORREIAS MERCÚRIO S/A IND. E COM.
CRIART ETIQUETAS METALICAS E ADESIVOS
CROSBY
CSB
DANFOSS
DBD FILTROS
DEB'MAQ
DEDINI S/A INDUSTRIAS DE BASE
DELAMANO
DIAGNERG
DIGIMAT
DIGI-TRON BALANÇAS
DINÂMIC SERVICE
DINATÉCNICA
DISTRINOX
DLG AUTOMAÇÃO INDUSTRIAL LTDA.
DMB
DOSITEC BOMBAS
DRIA IMPLEMENTOS AGRICOLAS
DURCON EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS LTDA
DUTEX TUBOS
EDRA
EDWARDS
ELETRO BUSCARIOLI LTDA.
ELINOX
ELIPSE
ELOS & PPR
EMBRASUL
EMBRAVAL
EMBU / ACATEC
EMPRAL
ENDRESS+HAUSER
ENGEVAL
EPIL
EQUILIBRIO BALANCEAMENTOS
EQUIPALCOOL
ESCANDINÁVIA VEÍCULOS LTDA
ESPIROFLEX
ESTRADEIRO AUTO PEÇAS LTDA
EXPAMETAL
F. MASTER SISTEMAS DE MEDIÇÃO
FAST
FERNAVAN
FERRAMENTAS GERAIS
FERRUSI
FERTILANCE
FERTRON
FESTO AUTOMAÇÃO
FIO DE CHUMBO
FIVES LILLE
FRATO
FREFER  S/A   IND. E COM. DE FERRO E  AÇO.
FUNDIÇÃO ÁGUA VERMELHA
FUNDIÇÃO MORENO
FURLAN FERRAMENTAS DE CORTE
GAIL ARQUITETURA EM CERÂMICA
GARDNER DENVER NASH
GASCOM
GATEC S/A
GATES
GBA CALDEIRA
GE FANUC DO BRASIL
GE INFRASTRUCTURE WATER & PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES
GEA DO BRASIL INTERCAMBIADORES
GEFRAN BRASIL
GENEBRE DO BRASIL
GENERAL CHAINS DO BRASIL S/A
GEOTECNO
GERDAU COMERCIAL DE AÇOS S/A.
GERENCIAL
GPS AGRIMENSORA
GR ASSESSORIA
GRUPO BIO SOJA
GRUPO FEITAL
GUMMI
HCI HIDRÁULICA
HEINZMANN
HELAMIN BRASIL INDÚSTRIA E COMÉRCIO
HELIFAB BOMBAS  HELICOIDAIS
HENFEL
HENKEL TECNOLOGIES
HERBICAT
HEROM
HIGRA INDUSTRIAL LTDA
HIPPERQUÍMICA
HITER
I.P.E.
IBRA AGRISCIENCES
IDEA NEWS
IFB BIOTECNOLOGIA / LOFFREDO & MORETTI ENGENHARIA
IFM ELECTRONIC
IKEDA
IMBIL
IMEFER
IMV VÁLVULAS
INAL
INBRANOX
INCUBADORA DE EMPRESAS DE JARDINÓPOLIS
INCUBADORA DE EMPRESAS DE JUNDIAÍ
INCUBADORA DE EMPRESAS DE SANTA BÁRBARA D'OESTE
INDUSTÉCNICA
INOX TUBOS
INOXPIRA AÇOS INOXIDÁVEIS
INSTITUTO AGRONÔMICO – IAC
INTACTA ROLAMENTOS
INTERATIVA
INTERENG AUTOMAÇÃO
INTERVAL
IOPE INSTRUMENTOS DE PRECISÃO LTDA.
IORGA
IRRIGABRAS
IRRIGABRASIL - SISTEMAS DE IRRIGAÇÃO
ISOPLAST
ISOTREF TUBOS TREFILADOS
ISOVER
ITAL
ITALBRONZE
ITALINDUSTRIA
ITECA SOCADEI
ITW CHEMICAL
JARAGUÁ EQUIPAMENTOS
JIMENEZ IRRIGAÇÃO
JOMAPE AUTOMAÇÃO INDUSTRIAL
JOPLAS
JORNAL CONEXÃO CANA BRASIL
JORNAL PARANÁ AÇUCAR E ALCOOL
JUMIL
JURESA CANAVIEIRA
JW
JY
KCEL
KLINGER
KLÜBER LUBRICATION
KOBLITZ
KROMINOX
KSB
LAAPSA
LABOR SOLUÇÕES INDUSTRIAIS
LABTESTE
LAMIFLEX
LEMASA
LEONEL ENGENHARIA
LEROY SOMER
LINDSAY AMAERICA DO SUL
LIONS CLUBE DE SERTÃOZINHO
LNF LATINO AMERICANA
LOSINOX
MAC MANUTENÇÃO AGRÍCOLA
MACOPEMA
MAG TRANSFORMADORES
MARANGHETTI & MARRA
MAUSA
MAXITRATE
MAYEKAWA
MECAT
MEINCOL DISTRIBUIDORA DE AÇOS LTDA
MENPHIS ENGENHARIA TÉRMICA LTDA
MERCOTUBOS TUBOS DE AÇOS
METALCORTE - FUNDIÇÃO
METALCORTE - MOTORES
METALLIC
METALPLAN
METALTEX
METALTINTAS
METISA
METTLER-TOLEDO
MGA SERVICE
MICRONAL
MICROPRECS
MILLS
MIPEL
MOLYPLAST
MORAES EQUIPAMENTOS AGRÍCOLAS
MOTOCANA
MOVEQUIP
MS TUBULAÇÕES INDUSTRIAIS
MULTIAÇOS
MULTIPLUS EVENTOS
MULTIPLUS EVENTOS
MULTITEK
MUNTERS BRASIL INDÚSTRIA E COMÉRCIO LTDA.
NACHI
NALCO BRASIL LTDA.
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
NETAFIM BRASIL
NETZ SERVICE
NETZSCH DO BRASIL
NEXUS E.P.I
NG METALÚRGICA
NIAGARA COM. E IND.
NIAGARA COMERCIAL
NILKO
NOMA
NORTEL
NOVA INOX
NOVUS
NSK DO BRASIL
NÚCLEO INOX
NUTRION - GESSO AGRÍCOLA
NYKON DWYLER
OBO BETTERMANN
OMEGA TUBOS
OROBICA
ORTOVEL CAMINHÕES
OTMA
OXIPIRA
PAINCO
PALÁCIO DAS FERRAMENTAS
PARKER
PARKER HANNIFIN
PARKITS
PAZ PAZINI
PEPPERL + FUCHS
PERENNE
PERMETAL
PERSICO PIZZAMIGLIO
PG ELEVAÇÃO DE CARGAS
PHELPS DODGE
PICCIN
PIPE SISTEMAS TUBULARES LTDA.
PLANUSI
POLIBOR
POLIMATE
POLIRON
PREFEITURA MUNICIPAL DE SERTÃOZINHO
PROCANA
PROCESSO INDUSTRIAL
PROCKNOR ENGENHARIA
PRODUQUIMICA
PROLINK CORRENTES E EQUIPAMENTOS
PROMINAS
PROMINENT
PROMOEN
QUIMATEC
QUIMATIC
RAESA BRASIL
RAM AUTOMAÇÃO E CONTROLE
RENK ZANINI
RENTANK MACROGALPÕES IND. E COM. DE COBERTURAS
REPASA
RETEMA
REVISTA ALCOOLBRÁS
REVISTA BIODIESEL
REVISTA NEI / GUIA NEI
REVISTA P&S - A REVISTA QUE GERA NEGÓCIOS
REXNORD CORRENTES LTDA
RG  SERTAL
RIBERTEC AUTOMAÇÃO
RIZZIVAL
RODO LINEA
RODOFORT
ROMASUL
ROMERA IRRIGAÇÃO
ROMI
RR USINAGEM E CALDEIRARIA
RTS
RUN TIME
RUTER
SANDET - LIMPEZA AUTOMOTIVA E INDUSTRIAL
SANTA IZABEL IMPLEMENTOS AGRÍCOLAS LTDA
SANTAL
SANTANENSE
SASIL
SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
SCREENS DO BRASIL
SEBRAE - SP
SELFTECH
SENAC SÃO PAULO
SENSE ELETRÔNICA
SERCOM
SERGOMEL
SERMAG
SERMATEC
SERTECIN
SES SURFACE ENGINEERING SERVICES LTDA-ME
SETTIMOTUBO
SEW EURODRIVE BRASIL LTDA.
SHELL
SHOCKMETAIS
SICREDI
SIEMENS
SILVER WEIBULL
SIME DO BRASIL
SIMISA
SINER ENG. E COM. LTDA
SISCAP
SISTEMA PRODUTOS PARA CONTROLE DE PRAGAS
SITRON
SIVA IND. COM. DE ARTEFATOS DE ARAME E AÇO LTDA.
SKF DO BRASIL
SM
SMAR
SMV VÁLVULAS
SNR ROLAMENTOS DO BRASIL LTDA.
SOLDERING
SOMASSEY // LOPES - DIVISÃO MATERIAL RODANTE ITM
SOS SERVICE
SOTEQUI
SPIRAX SARCO
SPRAYING SYSTEMS
STAB
STEMMANN
SUCRAL
SUMITOMO
T&P TECHNOLOGY
TATÚ / MARCHESAN
TEADIT
TEC PEÇAS FILTROS E PEÇAS
TECFLUX-SWAGELOK
TECHNOPULP INDUSTRIAL
TECNIPLAS
TECNO MOAGEIRA
TECNOFINK
TEKBOND
TELECAMP TELECOMUNICAÇÕES, INFORMÁTICA
TEREX LATIN AMERICA
TEXACO
TEXAS TURBINAS A VAPOR
TGM TURBINAS
THERM CABOS ESPECIAIS
THOR-PEÇA PARA TRUCKS E CARRETAS, KOPPE, NEW RODAS
TIMKEN
TINTAS PERFORTEX
TINTAS SUMARÉ
TJA  VÁLVULAS INDUSTRIAIS
TOLEDO DO BRASIL
TORKFLEX
TOYOTA
TRACAN
TRACBEL S.A.
TRANTER DO BRASIL
TRIBOTEC
TUBELLI
TUBERFIL
TUBEXPRESS
TUBOS IPIRANGA
TUBOS OLIVEIRA
TURBIMAQ
UBYFOL
UDOP - FEICANA
UNESP - JABOTICABAL
UNIBRASIL UNIFORMES
UNICA
UNIVAL
USICAMP LTDA
VALEQ VÁLVULAS
VALMONT / VALLEY
VÁLVULAS S. F.
VARIMOT ACIONAMENTOS
VARIXX
VAZ QUÍMICA
VEDACERT
VENTEC
VEST-TELAS - VESTIMENTAS E TELAS TÉCNICAS
VETRO INDÚSTRIA COMÉRCIO E SERVIÇOS LTDA.
VIBROPAC
VIBROSERT
VIDEOJET DO BRASIL
VILLARES
VISÃO ROLAMENTOS
VONDER
VORAX
VTR VETTOR EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS LTDA.
VULKAN
WALTER TECNOLOGIAS EM SUPERFÍCIES
WBA - DIVISÃO AÇÚCAR & ÁLCOOL
WEATHERFORD GEREMIA
WEG
WELDING  DE SOLDAGEM E INSPEÇOES
WERK-SCHOTT MIRASSOL
WESTFALIA
WIREX CABLE
WOMA EQUIPAMENTOS LTDA
WOODWARD
WPP REFORMA DE MÁQUINAS
WS AUTOMAÇÃO INDUSTRIAL
WUXAL-FAFENA
YASKAWA
ZAMPROGNA
ZEPPONI
ZKL ROLAMENTOS
ZOBOR

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

EXAME MAGAZINE: SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES THRIVE AROUND BRAZIL ETHANOL

Go to original

This is the second installment in a three-part series about small and medium companies in Brazil that have seized opportunities related to the need to modernize sugar and ethanol plants. By supplying technology and new services to a growing sector, they have achieved extraordinary growth. H.O.

Exame Magazine (the Brazilian equivalent of "BusinessWeek")

August 24th, 2006

by Juliana Borges

For centuries, sugarcane, the first great crop to act as a major driving force behind the Brazilian economy in colonial times, was grown in the same basic fashion: covering extensive areas, with low yields, no mechanization, and, oftentimes, with laborers toiling away under degrading conditions. However, over the past ten years, this landscape has been changing radically. The plants have abandoned their archaic practices and have become modern, profitable enterprises. In order to accomplish this goal, they have been making sizable investments in everything from technology and genetic research to logistics and outsourcing.

That’s where small and medium companies fit in. The plants cannot lose their focus on their core business: producing sugar and ethanol. “We need people who can supply technology and innovation, both in the agricultural and in the industrial areas”, says Rodrigo Sanches, the heir to the Sao Domingos refinery in Catanduva, in the interior of Sao Paulo state. Sao Domingos has a list of eighteen small and medium services contractors. Among these smaller firms, there is a consultancy in quantitative research, hired to optimize the management of the hundreds of variables involved in the technology of production and logistics. “We need to know how to apply the best possible combination to achieve maximum profits”, says physicist Aguinaldo Ricieri, who is responsible for the plant’s modernization project.

One of the fields that offers the best opportunities for small and medium companies is advanced research. Companies that develop new strains of sugarcane, through genetic manipulation, study alternatives to better use bagasse (crushed sugarcane), and enhance the techniques connected to precision agriculture, among other activities, are innovating in the field and finding room for growth.

That is precisely what is happening with CanaVialis and Alellyx, companies that, over the past three years, have received US$ 40 million from Votorantim Novos Negocios (VNN), a subsidiary of Brazilian giant Votorantim, dedicated to investments in start-ups. “The potential for growth of small businesses in areas related to technological development is very big”, says Fernando Reinach, a director at VNN. “In the sectors in which Brazil is a leader, as is the case with ethanol, the potential is even bigger.”

Based in Campinas, in Sao Paulo state, where Unicamp, one of Brazil’s leading universities, is located, CanaVialis conducts R&D to genetically enhance different species of sugarcane, in addition to providing consulting services in planting and production management. This kind of knowledge is extremely valuable for the strategic planning of refineries. The value of a sugarcane plantation is determined by its sugar content – the more sugar per ton, the more the sugarcane is worth, because it has a greater energy value. Genetic manipulation in labs allows for the development of news species that contain more sugar and are, therefore, capable of producing more ethanol or sugar.

(to be continued)

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

INDIA PRIME MINISTER HEADS DELEGATION TO BRAZIL

Go to original

The President of Brazil, Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva, is negotiating a strategic partnership with representatives from India. It is the largest bilateral agreement signed by his government since a Chinese delegation, headed by Hu Jintao, visited Brazil in 2004.

A group of government officials and businessmen from that country arrived in Brazil on Sept. 11th, with the objective of strengthening ties between the two countries and developing business opportunities.

The delegation from India, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, left India for Brazil and Cuba to attend the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) and NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) summits. Before leaving, while addressing reporters in New Delhi, Manmohan described the 116-member NAM as a “great movement.”

The delegation from India also includes approximately fifty business and industry leaders, who have been at the forefront of an accelerated process of international expansion. In the first six months of this year alone, Indian companies have acquired 76 companies in other countries, in deals that total US$ 5.2 billion.

This amount is just shy of what India received in direct foreign investments in 2005, US$ 5.5 billion.

Among the new acquisitions, the largest was the purchase of oil wells in Brazil by India’s state-owned ONGC Videsh, which invested US$ 1.4 billion in the deal, according to an assessment carried out by FICCI (Indian Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers). The oil industry has also attracted the attention of Australian Mine Planning & Construction, which has acquired rights to explore oil in Brazil. Brazil is the company’s most important destination after India.

The company’s general manager, Simran Bedi, said the investment, in its first phase, should reach US$ 1.5 billion, but that, over a period of fifteen years, capital expenditures should exceed US$ 18 billion.

India imports about 70% of the oil it uses, a fact which contributes significantly to its trade imbalances, especially with oil hovering around US$ 70/barrel. Last year, the country presented a US$ 42 billion deficit in its trade relationships, US$ 30 billion of which were caused by steep oil prices. Under these conditions, one of India’s main concerns is to foster cooperation with Brazil in the ethanol fuel business.

India’s largest sugar producer, Bajaj Hindusthan, has US$ 500 million in cash to invest in the sector in Brazil. Two other companies, Rajsheru and Renuka, have expressed interest in doing business with Brazil, according to R. Viswanathan, India’s former consul in Sao Paulo, currently the government official in charge of Latin America at the Indian Foreign Ministry.

Joint initiatives in agricultural R&D

Silvio Crestana, the president of the Brazilian Company for Research in Agriculture, known by its acronym in Portuguese, Embrapa, and India’s ambassador to Brazil, Hardeep Singh Puri, have signed an agreement, effective as of 2007, between Embrapa and the Indian Council on Agicultural Research (ICAR).

This agreement, dubbed an “Action Plan”, involves sixteen of Embrapa’s research units and provides for the education and training of Indian engineers and other professionals in Brazil, and of Brazilians at ICAR, in India. Sugarcane, soy, corn, fruit, and different vegetables are the main crops being contemplated. Plant biotechnology, integrated management of pests, water supply stewardship, and enhancement of animal health are also part of the agreement.

The Plan also provides for initiatives in germoplasm. Brazil will send to India different strains of banana, guava, corn, and wheat, among other plants, and will receive from India strains of soy that are resistant to Asian rust, as well as millet, sorghum, and wheat germoplasm. India will also work with Brazil to help that country improve its processes for extracting oil from papaya.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

'ECONOMIST' JOURNALIST DISCUSSES BRAZILIAN ETHANOL AT UNICA MEETING IN SAO PAULO

The Sugarcane Agribusiness Union of the State of Sao Paulo, better known by its Portuguese acronym, UNICA, invited Indian journalist and author Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, who regularly writes for Britain’s “The Economist”, based in New York City, to talk about Renewable Energy to an audience composed of businesspeople, journalists, government officials, and leaders from the energy industry. The meeting took place at Sao Paulo’s World Trade Center, on Monday, September 4^th.

At 10 a.m., the president of UNICA, Eduardo Pereira de Carvalho, addressed the gathering. Mr. Vaitheeswaran’s presentation took place at noon. The meeting at the WTC/SP foreshadows the Ethanol Summit 2007, which will take place in Sao Paulo in June 2007.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

BRAZIL INVESTS IN CARIBBEAN SUGAR AND ETHANOL TO BYPASS U.S. IMPORT TARIFF

My friends at Biopact picked up the story below, which reports on a joint-venture between Brazil’s Coimex and Jamaica’s Petrojam, which have come together to acquire two large sugar factories in Jamaica, Frome and Monymusk.

Biopact lists as the main reason Brazil’s higher productivity in the sugar and ethanol business.

I would add that another incentive would be the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Caribbean Basin Initiative, which allows the export of ethanol from certain countries into the United States without the need to pay the 54-cent tariff per gallon imposed on ethanol exported directly from Brazil.

Biopact reports:

Brazilians going abroad to buy up ethanol plants and to replant sugarcane

Brazilian investors and companies with 3 decades of experience in sugarcane and biofuel production are going abroad to buy up inefficient sugar mills and ethanol plants to convert them into hyper-efficient, streamlined complexes that deliver alternative energy. While they are at it, they re-plant sugarcane lands with high yielding and disease tolerant varieties that were developed over the years through Brazil's extensive sugar cane biotech and genomics research efforts (Brazilian scientists were the first to sequence the sugarcane genome, and the country hosts the largest collection of (transgenic) sugarcane varieties on the planet).

Brazilian ethanol firm Coimex, for example, has joined Jamaica's Petrojam in a joint bid for the country's two largest and most efficient sugar factories, Frome and Monymusk, which together account for 65 per cent of the island's output. If government signs off on the bid, it will form the basis for the partners, who have already acquired land for the development of a second ethanol plant at a cost of US$16 million, to make ethanol feedstock locally. It is estimated that the transformation cost of the factories and sugar lands will carry a US$100 million (J$6.6 billion) price tag. According to the ambassador of Brazil, the project would involve full replanting of the sugar lands to significantly improve cane yields and productivity. This, along with modernisation of the plant, would cost in the region of US$100 million, according to the Brazilian's estimate.

Although the transformation of the factories and land will still focus on the production of sugar, an important element of the project will involve the production of hydrous or wet ethanol locally which could then be dehydrated at the plant located on Marcus Garvey Drive along the city's harbour. Last September, the Petrojam/Coimex joint venture, Petrojam Ethanol Limited (PEL), started production from its 40 million gallon plant located on Petrojam's existing premises.

That investment cost about US$12 million and has since yielded an estimated J$246 million in profit from J$2.25 billion in revenue from 70 million litres (19 million gallon), up to the end of March 2006. The partnership, over the next few months, plans to move into the next development phase in which it will build a 60 million gallon plant at a cost of US$16 million, having already secured the land on which it will be sited further along the Marcus Garvey Drive strip, a location which ensures access to the Kingston harbour.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

BNDES LISTS FIVE MOST COMPETITIVE COUNTRIES IN ETHANOL PRODUCTION

The chart above was prepared by Luiz Carlos Correia Carvalho, former president of UNICA, the powerful association of sugarcane businesses of the state of Sao Paulo and, later, chairman of the Brazilian Industry Chamber of Sugar and Ethanol, part of that country’s Ministry of Agriculture.

The first column lists the countries where ethanol is most competitively produced*. The middle column defines indices for each of them (with the world average equal to 100) and the column on the left shows the number of tons of total sugars produced per hectare.

The chart is part of a broader study published by Mr. Carvalho, who based his data on the 1999-2000 sugarcane harvest. It was subsequently published by the Brazilian government’s national development bank (BNDES) in 2003.

In June 2005, Mr. Carvalho participated in an IEA conference in Paris, during which he delivered a presentation on the Brazilian experience with biofuels in general and ethanol in particular. This session was followed by another that analyzed “the separate elements of a national biofuels strategy: designing a national cost-benefit analysis, creating a proper regulatory and policy framework, and establishing national environmental standards. Presenters also addressed the socio-economic/sustainable development component, including rural community development, environmental impacts, income generation, and the foreign currency potential.”

*These figures already discount income from byproducts. In Brazil, for example, the crushed sugar cane, or bagasse, is burned to generate the heat necessary to process the fuel. While energy generation through bagasse burning used to be considered a marginal product just a few years ago, it currently accounts for 8% of a typical Brazilian refinery’s revenues, as excess energy may be sold to the national power grid.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.

GOOGLE GUYS TRAVEL TO BRAZIL TO CHECK OUT BRAZILIAN ETHANOL

Note: the following story was adapted and translated from an article that appeared originally on www.uol.com.br, the electronic version of "Folha de Sao Paulo", Brazil's leading daily newspaper, on February 3rd, 2006.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhat belatedly, I report on Larry Page and Sergei Brin’s trip to Brazil in early February 2006. Several Brazilian mainstream media carried the news, including “Folha de Sao Paulo” and Computerworld.

As is becoming increasingly the norm, a blog broke the story, which was subsequently picked up by the MSM. H.O.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It all started on “Blue Bus”, a Brazilian blog. In a post, the blog’s owner, Julio Hungria said, “The Google guys came to a restaurant next door for dinner. Can you believe that?”

“They displayed a local’s familiarity with Ipanema. But I’m sure the two guys were really Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The went inside the Gula Gula restaurant on Anibal Street, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. And you know what? Nobody noticed.”

Mr. Hungria added, “On the mezzanine, they tried to make sense of the menu. ‘What is picadinho?’, they asked. They thought it was some kind of fish, when, in reality, it is a Brazilian dish made of small pieces of chopped beef. Their reaction: ‘No, no red meat’”.

Soon a blogger from the state of Minas Gerais chipped in, saying, “I also ran across the Google guys in the hallways of UFMG”, one of Brazil’s top universities.

The statement was backed up by a picture on the university’s web site, which showed the two entrepreneurs with the university’s president, under the headline, “Google Wants to Boost Partnerships”.

Meanwhile, on Blue Bus, two comments had been added by readers. One speculated whether "the rwo men weren’t actually look-alikes who had been hired to transit around Brazil’s major cities”, part of a viral marketing campaign. The other reader, Marco Chiaretti, noted, “Soon, someone’s going to say, ‘Here come those two nerds from Google.’

Being a Google guy in Brazil isn’t always fun.

The Dow Jones News Service, on yesterday’s electronic edition of “The Wall Street Journal”, said that the search engine company’s numbers for the last quarter of 2005, which led to a sharp drop in stock prices, “demonstrated the risks of international expansion”.

The figures that gave the company’s stock a tumble came out of Great Britain, but the news service focused on investment risks in China, then Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and India.

By phone, from Brazil, one of the Google guys, Sergey Brin, said that, “We will intensify our efforts to raise our infrastructure abroad and develop products designed for each market”.

And the Google guys’ interest in ethanol, which led them to the interior of Sao Paulo state,
proved, in the end, to be genuine. An interest which is shared not only by them and George W. Bush, but by others as well, according to a headline from “Globo Online”: “Bill Gates, Bush, and Goole Eye Brazilian Ethanol”.

The story goes that the founder of Microsoft “plans to invest in the Brazilian fuel”. And there’s more. In analyzing the repercussions of Mr. Bush’s State of the Union Address, the print version of the WSJ spoke of a new “technological fever” in Silicon Valley: investing in alternative energy companies.

Among others, the WSJ quotes Vinod Khosla, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, a company from which he has departed, who, over the past few years, has invested in “half a dozen” new companies in “clean fuel”, such as ethanol.

By the way, the cover story on the national ethanol program that Mr. Bush dreams about, the WSJ underscored difficulties, praised the initiative, and hailed Brazil as a “success story”.
On another note, “The New York Times” highlighted the “lack of enthusiasm” shown by Mr. Bush’s Republican Party, and, in particular, by Saudi Arabia.

Toward the middle of the article, an independent researcher remarked, “It is remarkable that we do not impose tariffs on Saudi fuel, when we tax fuel from Brazil”.

Follow what's happening in the Brazilian ethanol market on Ethablog, the only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol.