Raízen to invest US$ 250 million in sugarcane planting
Valor Econômico
Raízen, company resulting from the merger of Cosan and Shell, intends to plant from 180 thousand to 200 thousand hectares of sugar cane this year. Meeting the goal, which includes its own area and those of suppliers, at a ratio of 50% for each, will mean investments of nearly R$ 400 million (US$ 250 million), according to Pedro Mizutani, Vice President of Sugar and Alcohol of Raízen. If confirmed, the planting - that is late - shall be up to 20% greater than last year, when 150 hectares were renewed. In total, Raízen and its suppliers have an area of 850 thousand hectares of sugar cane, which supply the 24 plants of the Group in the States of São Paulo, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul.
That larger planted area should have a positive impact on the crushing of Raízen in 2012, even though such effect has not yet be measured, says Mizutani. "In general, we know the sugarcane crop in the end of cycle, which is now being renewed, produces 70 tons of cane per hectare. The new one will initially increase the productivity to 100 tons", says the Executive, who was yesterday in Piracicaba (SP) at the inauguration of the first day of integration of the systems of Raízen. With capacity to process nearly 65 million tons of sugarcane - in a harvest with 225 days -, Raízen announced yesterday it should process 58.1 million tons of sugarcane in this 2011/12 cycle, 7% more than in the past cycle.
Despite the above-average investments of this year, the offer of sugarcane will only achieve the industrial capacity of the company in three harvests, according to Mizutani. In the current season, the increase of the volume of sugarcane came mainly from the new units of company - Jataí (GO) and Caarapó (MS) - and from the Zanin plant, acquired this year with capacity to crush 2.6 million tons of sugarcane. The mix of production should repeat the average of the last harvests, according to Mizutani. Raízen continues using with 55% of its juice for the production of sugar and 45% for ethanol. With that, the production of sugar should reach 4.4 million tons, compared to the 3.8 million tons in the past cycle, and that of ethanol should get to 2.2 billion liters.
On the possible changes in the size of the crop until the end of the season, Mizutani says any variation may stay at 3% upwards or downwards. He sees a scenario of high for the sugar, even though the prices are still relatively under pressure because of the greater expectation of production in Asia. "But we have a crop in Brazil ahead and problems in China at sight", he adds. For the ethanol, the Executive also sees less volatility and more balanced demand with the prices at the pump.