CENTRO-SUL FOLLOWS WITH SALE OF HYDRATED ETHANOL HIGH AT THE BEGINNING OF DECEMBER

The volume of hydrated ethanol sold in the domestic market by the Central-South units totaled 858.11 million liters in the second half of December 2018. This represents an increase of 26.57% over the same period of the previous year ( 678.00 million liters). In total for the month, hydrated sales reached 1.79 billion liters, up 25.26% over December 2017 (1.43 billion liters). This volume, a record for a month in December, is due to the maintenance of the biofuels competitiveness against gasoline in the domestic market. This is the beginning of the most advantageous year for ethanol in this decade. In the first weeks of 2019 – according to a survey by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), with data compiled by the technical team of the Sugar Cane Industry Union (UNICA) – the average parity between pump prices hydrous ethanol and gasoline totaled 65% in Brazil. This figure is far below the average technical yield of 73% between both fuels. In at least eight states – Alagoas, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Paraná, Pernambuco and São Paulo – the renewables remain competitive at the stations. In the capital of São Paulo and in the interior of the state, for example, the ratio is below 65%. Compared to November 2018, sales of hydrated ethanol from the Center-South dropped by approximately 40 million liters – 1.79 billion in December versus 1.83 billion in the previous month. But this retraction does not point to a loss of competitiveness of the renewable, even with a current retreat of the international prices of gasoline. Reflects only the pricing by Petrobras for fossil fuels, which had their prices appreciably reduced in December. As a result of this practice, the distributors decreased their operating inventories to the lowest possible level due to changes in fuel procurement policies due to changes in market dynamics. Adding hydrated ethanol sales from the Center-South to those produced by the producers in the Northeast region – determined by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) – the volume of biofuel sold in Brazil totaled 1.9 billion liters in December. However, the actual demand for the month will only be known when ANP discloses the sales statistics (delivery) of fuels by the distributors to the stations. In the case of anhydrous, sales reached 311.32 million liters in the second half of December; lower than the 411.76 million observed in the same period of the previous year. In the month, the volume reached 633.80 million liters, against 809.52 million liters in December 2017. This reduction is due to the greater participation of hydrated in the fuel market of the otto cycle. Between April and December 31, sales of ethanol from the Center-South totaled 23.08 billion liters – 16.19 billion hydrated and 6.90 billion anhydrous. Of that total, 1.23 billion liters were for export and 21.86 billion for the domestic market – with domestic hydrated sales totaling 15.67 billion liters, an accumulated increase of 35.48% over the last year harvest. Finally, it should be noted that ethanol sales accounted for by UNICA and MAPA do not incorporate the imported product.

Source: Unica