BRAZIL DATA: CS Brazil's H1 Oct sugar output plunges 56.3% on year

Sugar production in Brazil's Center-South region fell 56.3% year on year in the first half of October to 1.146 million mt, data from Brazilian sugarcane industry group UNICA showed Oct. 26.

The figure was 217,000 mt below the consensus expectations of 1.363 million mt from 11 analysts that S&P Global Platts surveyed Oct. 21.

Mills in CS Brazil crushed 19.68 million mt of sugarcane in H1 October, down 46.8% year on year, UNICA said.

Sugar's share of the sugarcane crush for H1 October was 39.1%, compared with 45.3% a year earlier.

The cumulative sugar crush in CS Brazil since the start of the 2021-22 crop year on April 1 to mid-October is 487.33 million mt, down 9.6% compared with the same period in the 2020-21 crop year.

Sugar production since April 1 reached 30.35 million mt, or a decrease of 12.5% from the same period in the 2020-21 crop year.

Total recoverable sugar, or ATR, in H1 October was 156.19 kg/mt, down 4.9% year on year.

Ethanol production, sales

Ethanol production from sugar in CS Brazil was 1.24 billion liters in H1 October, down 40.3% from a year earlier, UNICA said. Hydrous ethanol production accounted for 647 million liters of the total, down 50.7% on the year, with anhydrous ethanol output down 22.5% at 590 million liters, it said.

Between the start of the 2021-22 harvest on April 1 and Oct. 16, ethanol production from sugar totaled 24.03 billion liters, with 14.55 billion liters of hydrous ethanol and 9.48 billion liters of anhydrous ethanol being produced.

Corn ethanol production in H1 October was 143.15 million liters, with 81.32 million liters of hydrous ethanol and 61.83 million liters of anhydrous ethanol being produced.

Ethanol sales by mills in CS Brazil during H1 October were 1.04 billion liters, 20.2% lower year on year, with 1.01 billion liters going to the domestic market and 29.98 million liters for exports.

The volume of hydrous ethanol sold to the domestic market during H1 October was 575.25 million liters, down 34.3% on the year. The quantity of anhydrous ethanol sold to the domestic market during H1 October was 431.36 million liters, 21.9% higher on the year.

Since the beginning of the 2021-22 harvest, cumulative sales of ethanol in the region totaled 15.79 billion liters, or a decrease of 1.6%, from the same period last year.