Brazil's CS cane crush rises slightly in late October

Brazil's center-south sugar mills crushed 38.38 million tonnes of cane in the second half of October, compared with 36.13 million tonnes earlier in the month, staging a slight recovery after rains had slowed operations, cane industry group Unica said on Tuesday. Brazil's main cane growing region produced 2.17 million tonnes of sugar in the last 15 days of October versus 2.09 million tonnes in the first half, Unica said.
Ethanol output was 1.84 billion liters compared with 1.68 billion liters in the first half of October. Crushing numbers were in line with market expectations. Compared with the second half of October 2015, they were 11.3 percent higher, possibly because more mills are still operating this year due to processing delays caused by above-average rain.
According to Unica, only 15 mills have finalized operations for the 2015/16 season by the end of October. At this time last year, 47 mills had finished processing. "Last year the drought reduced the amount of available cane, anticipating the end of the harvest. But the larger volume of raw material this year will take crushing to late December in most mills," said Unica's technical director Antonio de Padua Rodrigues.
Cumulative sugar output from April through October was 27.5 million tonnes, 6.7 percent below the same period last year. Ethanol output was 1.8 percent higher at 23.7 billion liters. The total recoverable sugar (ATR) indicator surpassed expectations of about 138 kilos per tonne of cane, reaching 140.8 kg/t for the fortnight. Overall, cumulative ATR numbers for the season still lag last year by 2.7 percent.
Mills allocated 42.2 percent of cane to sugar production, versus 43.4 percent in the previous 15-day period. The drop is a shift in a recent trend toward more sugar because the sweetener is currently giving better returns than ethanol. Mills may also be making less sugar because they have commitments with Brazil's oil, gas and fuels regulator ANP to produce regular volumes of anhydrous ethanol, which is mixed to gasoline, through the end of the harvest.