Guarani announces ethanol plant and change in the name
Valor Econômico
Açúcar Guarani will take "sugar" off the name and soon will become Guarani SA The process of change has already been started and is in line with the company's strategy to become also a major producer of energy. This quarter, the company, which earned R$ 1.35 billion (US$ 794 million) in 2009/10, has started the construction of an ethanol plant that will be attached to the sugar unit São José, located in Colina (SP).
The project, which will receive investments of R$ 30 million (US$ 17.7 million) and is expected to start working next season, will result in an ethanol production of 100 million liters of alcohol and will raise the company's alcohol mix from the current 38% to 45%, says Jacyr Costa, CEO of the company. He explains that the strategy, agreed with its shareholders, including with Petrobras, is aimed at giving more flexibility of production to the company, traditionally sugar, so that the Guarani can capture in the market the best opportunities of price of both sugar and alcohol. Changing the name of the company, which was established in the 60's, also seeks to adapt the image to its strategy of operation, which is broader than just the production of sugar, says Costa.
Until last season, 62% of the sugarcane juice of Guarani were for the production of sugar and the remaining 38% went to ethanol. The company's focus is to bring this mix to 50%, with flexibility of 10 percentage points for each of the two products. Together with the distillery, Guarani runs a project to expand the capacity of the existing plants. In total there are seven units, all located in the State of São Paulo, but this time, two go through expansion: Mandu plant from 3.5 million tons to 4 million tons, and São José, from 3.2 million to 4 million tons. "With these projects, the installed capacity of sugarcane crushing in the 2012/13 season will be of 21.8 million tons", calculates Costa.
There is still potential to grow 2.6 million tons of capacity in three other units, despite the start of this project has not yet scheduled, says Costa. He referred to the plants of Vertente, from 1.7 million tons to 2.5 million, Tanabi, from 1.7 million to 3 million tons and Severínia, which can be expanded from the current 2.5 million to 3 million tons. "This second phase would increase our capacity to grind cane to 24.4 million tons", he accounts.
This coming season, 2011/12, which begins in April, Guarani must process 18.5 million, down of 7.5% compared to the almost 20 million tons being processed in the 2010/11 cycle, in finalization. To get an idea of the progress, in 2009/10, the Guarani processed 14.5 million tons of sugarcane.
Controlled by the French multinational Tereos, which this year moved its headquarters to Brazil and is now called Tereos International, Guarani joined Petrobras, which will inject over the next five years R$ 1.6 billion (US$ 941.2 million) to grab 45.9% of the company. So far, the government injected R$ 682 million (US$ 401.2 million), part used in the acquisition of the Mandu plant and in cogeneration of energy projects from bagasse. With the ongoing investments, the company will leave a production from 120 thousand megawatt/hour per year to 700 thousand MWh until 2013 - including the partnership with Tractebel Energy made in 2008 for the production of 180 MWh. The projects, both to the increase the range and cogeneration of energy, will make the company more competitive, especially before a process of rising of costs, evaluates Costa.