Brazil Feb ethanol exports up 43% at 208m litres

02 March 2007 11:17  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Brazil’s February ethanol exports totalled 208m litres (55m gal), a 43% increase from the same month of 2006, Brazil’s foreign trade ministry said on Friday.

 

However, exports in February fell by almost 38% when compared with January, when 337m litres of the biofuel were shipped. Part of the drop could be attributed to the fewer number of working days in February.

 

Ethanol export revenues in February stood at $93m (€70m), a 41% decrease from $158m in January, but more than the double the $45m registered in the year-earlier month, the government said.

 

The average price paid for Brazilian ethanol in February was $448/cbm (cubic metre) FOB (free on board), down from $468/cbm in January, but up from $314/cbm a year earlier, the foreign trade ministry said.

 

Brazil anhydrous ethanol prices were assessed at $430-450/cbm FOB SANTOS during the week ended 28 February, virtually unchanged from the four weeks earlier, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

 

Brazil is the world’s second-largest producer of ethanol, after the US, but the leading exporter of the biofuel.

 

President George Bush is scheduled to arrive in Brazil on 8 March to discuss an ethanol production partnership with Brazil. The visit is part of Bush’s tour of five Latin American countries.

 

Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST), a left-leaning association of 1.5m members, on 1 March released a statement criticising the local sugarcane industry and Brazil’s possible ethanol agreement with the US.

 

“This is clearly a new strategy by the US to weaken the geopolitical influence of Venezuela and Bolivia [in Latin America],” the MST said.

 

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez this week slammed the US for using corn to produce ethanol. Chavez said the idea of using food to produce fuel is “tragic and dramatic.”

 

($1 = €0.76)

By: William Lemos
+1 713 525 2653

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