Indian Party in the interior of São Paulo
Valor Econômico 09/09/10
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Consumption of India, Sharad Pawar, landed yesterday in São Paulo for one of his most important visits to the country. He is the guest of honor of today's inauguration in Brejo Alegre (SP) of the project for the expansion of one of two plants of Equipav Açúcar e Álcool, renamed Renuka do Brasil, acquired by the Indian company Shree Renuka Sugars this year.Those assets, plus the two plants purchased from the Paraná-based company Vale do Ivaí in November, position the largest Indian sugar company also among the largest players in Brazil. Adding to the capacity of the four plants and already considering the ongoing expansions, Renuka do Brasil, a subsidiary of Shree Renuka Sugars, will have capacity to process 15 million tons of sugarcane in the next cycle.
Pawar stresses out the Indian companies of the sectors of electronics and software are already present in Brazil, but he remarks that Renuka is the only Indian sugar giant to discover the advanced Brazilian sector. Renuka is also the Indian company that invests the most in Brazil. The four power plants were purchased for nearly R$ 600 million (US$ 342.9 million), plus the assumption of debts of more than R$ 1.5 billion (US$ 857.1 million) of the two companies acquired.
Besides that, Renuka has an investment plan of R$ 426 million (US$ 243.4 million), of which R$ 226 million (US$ 129.1 million) to add 1.5 million tons to the sugarcane processing capacity of the Brejo Alegre plant and add 100 megawatts (MW) to the capacity of cogeneration of energy from bagasse, which will increase to 295 MW (the investment program that will be officially launched today).
The other R$ 200 million (US$ 114.3 million) are being invested in two projects in the Paraná units. The first one, in the implementation of a sugar mill in the ethanol plant of Paraná that next season will have a mix sugar of 70%. The other is the expansion of the area planted with sugarcane in 100 thousand hectares. "We have capacity to process 3.1 million tons of sugarcane in Paraná, but the agricultural area is only generating 1.8 million tons", explains Narendra Murkumbi, President of Shree Renuka Sugars.
Murkumbi should announce the President of Renuka do Brasil by the end of this month and he says in advance it will be an Executive of the Brazilian market. He also says that at the moment he is not taking part in any negotiation for the purchase plants in Brazil, but that such a possibility has not been ruled out of the plans. "We are interested in increasing our capacity in Brazil. We have a lot of potential to grow", says the Executive. The major investment of an Indian company in another country, however, does not bother the Indian Minister of Agriculture. "The processing of the sugar [of Renuka do Brasil] will be made in India. Besides, it is an open market", says Pawar.