Exclusive – Brazil Corn Ethanol Push Gains Momentum as COFCO, AMaggi, Raizen Weigh Entry
by Marcelo Teixeira (Reuters) Chinese commodities trader COFCO, Brazilian grains group AMaggi and a Shell-Cosan joint venture are working on plans to build their first corn ethanol plants in Brazil, according to their suppliers, breaking sugarcane’s lock on the biofuel locally.
The wave of fresh interest from some of the world’s biggest energy and grains players suggests corn ethanol is ready for the big time in Brazil, where sugarcane has been virtually the only source of ethanol in the world’s No. 2 producer of the biofuel.
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The impact on commodity markets could be far-reaching, as new plants challenge U.S. ethanol for sales in northeast Brazil and dent corn exports, which grew fourfold in the past decade.
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The fresh interest from COFCO, AMaggi and the world’s No. 1 sugar producer Raizen – co-owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) and Cosan SA (CSAN3.SA) — could quickly ramp up Brazil’s nascent corn ethanol industry.
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The new ethanol plants aim to make more profitable use of Brazil’s growing corn output, which has surged as farmers learned to squeeze both a soy and a corn crop out of the same fields in a single year, with help from the tropical climate. READ MORE
UNICA: Brazilian corn ethanol production continues to grow (Ethanol Producer Magazine)
LucasE3 announces agreement to build corn ethanol plant in Brazil (Ethanol Producer Magazine)
