August 24, 2015
Sugaronline | http://goo.gl/6JkVpG
Cane mills in Brazil's centre-south produced 2.86 million tonnes of sugar in the first half of August, up from 2.79 million in the second half of July, local industry association Unica said, according to Reuters
Output of sugar this month from the world's largest exporter of the sweetener was within market expectations. Weather has been dry, allowing mills to harvest uninterrupted.
"For the second consecutive fortnight, dry weather in the main productive areas has favoured harvesting, eliminating the earlier gap between this harvest and last year's," Unica Director Antonio de Padua Rodrigues said.
The centre-south harvest had processed 326.79 million tonnes of cane into sugar and ethanol by mid-August, just half a% more than this time last year, Unica said.
Despite the rise in sugar output from late July, mills in the region crushed less cane in the first half of August compared with the previous half month. Brazil's main centre-south cane region crushed 47.41 million tonnes of cane, down from 49.44 million in late July.
Tarcilo Rodrigues, lead analyst at Bioagencia consultants, said harvesting in early August was actually in line with late July, which had one extra day of harvest that contributed to the additional two million tonnes of cane crushed.
Weather has been extremely dry but the high-pressure system that has dominated the cane region over the past month began to break up on Thursday with the arrival of a cold front that will open the way for more precipitation through early September, local forecasters said.
Unica's next report, due in early September, will likely show more modest crushing numbers than the past two fortnights as widespread rains are forecast to cover Sao Paulo early next week. The state accounts for 60% of Brazil's cane crop.
Cumulative sugar output since the season started in April reached 16.36 million tonnes, 9% behind last year by mid-August, Unica data showed.
Under the drier conditions of late, mills have begun to increase the amount of their cane used for sugar production to 44.9% in early August, up from 43.9% in late July. The remainder of the cane crush goes to ethanol production.
Mills in the region produced 2.17 billion litres of the biofuel in the first half of this month, down slightly from 2.19 billion litres in late July.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian central bank will remain conservative and act decisively to prevent inflation from deviating significantly from the government's target, bank board member Luiz Awazu Pereira said on Friday, signaling another interest rate hike has not been ruled out.
Speaking at a regional economy event in the city of Belo Horizonte, Pereira said domestic and external uncertainties force "monetary policy to have a conservative bias for a prolonged period of time."