Cosan makes the first sale of alcohol fuel to Japan
O Estado de S. Paulo
The sugar and alcohol conglomerate Cosan closed the first contract for the export of alcohol fuel to Japan. The partnership, entered into with Mitsubishi, foresees the supply of ethanol for use in the production of ETBE, fuel that is being used to replace methanol, because it is a cleaner oxygenate agent. According to the Brazilian company, this is the first long-term contract for the supply of ethanol to Japan, covering the period of three years.
The prices will be determined by the Esalq indicator and the forecast is that the volumes may exceed 80 million liters a year. According to the commercial officer Cosan, Mark Lyra, an important point of this agreement is the inclusion of items of sustainability as requirements for its implementation. "Points like compliance with the labor laws, the reduction of greenhouse effect gases, and the respect to the environmental rules are part of the agreement", said the executive.
Currently, Cosan has capacity to produce 2.3 billion liters of ethanol a year. In the 2008/09 harvest, Cosan exported 456.4 million liters to the United States and countries of Europe and Asia. In the case of Asia, however, so far the volumes exported were used mainly for industrial purposes. In May last year, the company was also was a pioneer as it signed the first contract with items of sustainability in order to supply fuel ethanol to the Swedish market.
The first ethanol anhydrous shipment to Japan will be made still in the 2009/10 harvest, according to Lyra. According to him, the three-year contract closed with Mitsubishi is the basis for a long-term partnership with the Japanese market, which is beginning now a policy for the use of ethanol fuel as indirect gasoline additive. For the executive, the exports of ethanol to Japan may achieve nearly 10% of the total exports of Cosan in long term.