Argentina’s biofuels market expands following new blending mandates

13 May 2010 22:56  [Source: ICIS news]

BUENOS AIRES (ICIS news)--Biofuel sales in Argentina reached 115,000 cubic metres (cbm) in the first four months of the year following the adoption of new blending mandates, the president of a trade group said on Thursday.

“Of this amount, 45,000 cbm corresponded to ethanol sales and 70,000 to biodiesel,” said Carlos St James, president of the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber (CADER).

Argentina was expected to increase its biodiesel blending mandate from the current 5% to 7% in 2011, the group said. A 10% blending mandate adopted in 2012 would further increase the size of the market.

“If the biodiesel cut is expanded, the local biodiesel business could rise from $770m [€531m] a year to over a billion dollars a year in 2011 and to $1.5bn in 2012,” he said.    

The size of the Argentine biodiesel market reached 977,000 cbm/year in 2010 and was divided among 19 local producers that were already supplying the quotas that the government set in February.

For ethanol, the 5% blending mandate created a 282,000 cbm/year market, CADER said. However, the nation's nine ethanol producers lacked the capacity to meet the mandate.

($1 = €0.79)

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