Breakneck expansion at a cost

摘要

In the past six years, more than 100 new sugarcane mills, each able to crush between three and four million tonnes/year of cane, have started up in Brazil. More than three million hectares have been planted with sugarcane for the first time, an increase of about 50%. Thousands of sophisticated new harvesting machines, as well as planting machines and the tractors, trucks and trailers needed to carry the cane to mills, have been bought.Improvements have been made at the principal ports, Santos and Paranagua, from which sugar and ethanol are exported. Train times between mills and ports have been speeded up, following improvements to tracks and the purchase of new specialised rolling stock. A start has been made on building a 2,000km long network of pipelines to carry ethanol to the ports and major cities.