BRAZIL: CBAA doesn't plan to resume activities in 4 mills

April 17, 2017

Sugaronline | https://goo.gl/lwMQKg

CBAA, a Brazilian sugarcane processor, doesn't intend to reactivate four of its mills, and is now investing in agriculture and in supplying raw material to different industries, according to president José Pessoa de Queiroz Bisneto, according to Brazil's Jornal Cana news website.

The mills which are not operating are located in Sidrolândia (Mato Grosso do Sul state), Brasilândia (Mato Grosso do Sul), Icém (São Paulo) and Japoatã (Sergipe). The company use to have capacity to grind less than 5 million tonnes of sugarcane per season.

"A modern mill needs to operate in a way that monetizes all by-products of the sugarcane. To perform in the current market a unit needs to crush at least 4.5 million tonnes of sugarcane," Queiroz said.

"A proof of this is that even with about 100 mills closed in (Brazil) in recent years, the amount of production has not diminished. Therefore, anticipating these changes, we adjusted the focus of our group to the agricultural area."

CBAA has 12,000 hectares of planted eucalyptus trees, and is selling the pulp to the paper market. The company also has 10,000 hectares of soy and another 10,000 planted with sugarcane, part in the northeast region and another part in the centre-south.

"This strategic change allowed us to recover revenue and comply with judicial recovery commitments," he said. "In April we will publish a public notice calling on creditors who have not yet received (their credits). When we settle our commitments we intend to maintain the agricultural sector as our core business."