Brazil ethanol demand will top domestic supply through 2013

January 4, 2012 |

In Brazil, failure to meet local demand for ethanol is pushing up imports from U.S. producers. The lack of Brazilian supply is due to sugarcane production falling this year for the first time in a decade, strong global demand for sugar, and surging domestic motor-fuel demand.

Currently, Brazilian ethanol demand outweighs supply by nearly 25 percent and may take more than two years for new investment to correct the imbalance. This is good news to U.S. farmers who have fought to protect their subsidized corn ethanol market from much more efficient sugarcane producers in Brazil.
Even with new U.S. environmental rules boosting ethanol demand, domestic producers have little to fear from Brazil until 2014 at the earliest, according to industry representatives and analysts.

Category: Fuels

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