In the first fifteen days of 2021, the sale of ethanol by production units in the Center-South region totaled 1.25 billion liters. Of this amount, 1.21 billion liters were destined for the domestic market and 41.68 million liters for export.

Of the total sold on the domestic market, 387.96 million liters refer to anhydrous ethanol and 819.55 million liters to hydrous ethanol. In the latter, the volume sold fell by 5.77% when compared to the same period in January 2020 (869.72 million liters of hydrate).

The total volume of hydrated products sold on the domestic market since the beginning of the 2020/2021 harvest until January 16, 2021 decreased by 17.33%, reaching 15.32 billion liters versus 18.54 billion liters registered in the same period of the previous cycle .

Alcohol destined for sanitizing and industrial purposes maintains an upward trend, with an increase of 42.3% in sales during the first half of January. The total sold since April reached 1.04 billion liters, a volume 32.22% higher than that registered until the same date of the 2019/2020 harvest (786.58 million liters), and 3.42% higher than the total sold during the last agricultural cycle (1.00 billion liters).

Accumulated since the beginning of the 2020/2021 harvest until January 16, ethanol sales by companies in the Center-South accumulated a decrease of 9.98%, totaling 24.56 billion liters. Of this total, exports totaled 40.67%, totaling 2.25 billion liters, and sales to the domestic market registered a reduction of around 13.14%, reaching 22.31 billion liters.

Milling and production 

The amount of sugarcane processed by the units in the Center-South totaled 212,500 tons in the first half of January. In the accumulated of the 2020/2021 harvest, the crushing reached 597.59 million tons, an increase of 3.17% when compared to the same period of the previous cycle (579.21 million tons).

Survey with the companies indicates that they are in operation in the Center-South region: 3 cane processing units, 5 exclusive corn units and another 2 plants processing both raw materials.

According to the technical director of UNICA, Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, "in the off-season the supply of ethanol from corn and the use of stock in producers should prevail, given that the beginning of the harvest of sugarcane in Central-South region should happen only at the end of the first quarter ".

Due to the low crushing, sugar and ethanol production in the first half of January were reduced. The biweekly production of sugar in this period totaled 7.57 thousand tons and ethanol 124.80 million liters.

"We are evaluating the schedule for the start of milling at the production units. Our perception is that we will have a smaller number of units in operation in March, with a more concentrated start in April, due to the impact of the drought on the development of sugarcane", explained Rodrigues.

Of the total ethanol produced, 115.10 million liters were made from corn. In the accumulated since the beginning of the current agricultural cycle, corn ethanol production reached 1.98 billion liters, 6.7% of the total biofuel produced, with an increase of 72.92% in relation to the volume registered in the same period of the year. 2019/2020 harvest.

In the aggregate since the beginning of the harvest until January 16, 2021, sugar production reached 38.19 million tons versus 26.48 million tons in the same period of the last harvest. In the case of ethanol, accumulated production reached 29.42 billion liters, of which 9.62 billion were anhydrous and 19.80 billion hydrated. The latter shows a drop of 11.46% when compared to the volume accumulated in the 2019/2020 harvest (32.24 billion liters).

"Despite the pandemic, lower fuel consumption and better sugar prices, the supply of ethanol and other biofuels allowed the generation of 18.7 million CBios in the last year. The inventory of CBios at the beginning of 2021 already exceeds 5 , 5 million titles and the offer planned for 2021 should significantly exceed the target set for this year ", concluded Rodrigues.