Brazil's main center-south cane belt produced 2.54 million tonnes of sugar in the second half of August, slowing 14 percent from the 2.97 million tonnes produced in the first half of last month, cane industry association Unica said on Thursday. Mills in the region crushed 38.31 million tonnes of cane over the fortnight, down 14.6 percent from the 44.8 million tonnes in the first half of August. Over the same period last year, mills harvested 47 million tonnes of cane in the fortnight.
Sugar output and cane crushing slightly missed market expectations for the two-week period, according to research by S&P Global Platts. A survey of market sources expected crushing in late August to come in around 40.2 million tonnes and sugar production to reach nearly 2.7 million tonnes. Cumulative sugar output this season, however, was up 17 percent through August from a year ago at 22.42 million tonnes, while total ethanol output was unchanged from this time last year at 16.5 billion liters, Unica said.
With the exception of rains in late May and early June, drier than average weather since March over the center-south cane belt has slashed the amount of cane that mills are able to harvest from a hectare. The tonnage of cane harvested from a hectare, known as agricultural yield, was down 10 percent from last year due to the dry weather.
The drop in the volume of cane per hectare was offset by higher levels of sugar per tonne of cane harvested by mills. Sugar per tonne of cane, or industrial yields, were up 10 percent from last year. Mills continue to maximize sugar production over ethanol output, Unica said in its latest bimonthly report. Of the cane harvested in the region, 47.8 percent went to sugar production in late August, up from 43.2 percent last year this time. Sugar prices are offering mills considerably more attractive returns than ethanol in Brazil.