Ethanol output in Brazil's key producing Center South region was 13.995 million liters in the first 15 days of February, data released Wednesday by trade group Unica showed.
Of this, 9.051 million liters was anhydrous ethanol, and 4.944 million liters was hydrous.
Ethanol output from the beginning of the 2013-14 marketing year on April 1 through February 15 was up 19.55% year on year because mills have directed most of their sugarcane this year to production of the biofuel.
As of February 15, south-central mills had produced 25.52 billion liters, compared with 21.35 billion liters last year.
Of this, 14.48 billion liters were hydrous ethanol, rising 15.75% over the same period last year. Anhydrous ethanol output to February 15 rose 24.92% to 11.04 billion liters.
Mills have the choice to make cane into sugar or ethanol. Mills have prioritized ethanol production this harvest because sugar prices have been pushed down by a global glut.
From April 1 to February 15, 54.76% of all the sugarcane crushed in the Center South of Brazil was allocated to ethanol production. During the 2012-13 marketing year, that figure was 50.46%.
Even so, accumulated sugar production still rose slightly, by 0.57% to 34.28 million mt, as the quantity of cane crushed was 11.97% higher at 596 million mt. The ethanol yield also rose, by 6.76%, to 42.81 liters/mt of cane from 40.10 a year earlier.
In the first 15 days of February, about 149,000 mt of cane was crushed, as the season is coming to an end. This figure was about 3.9% lower than the approximately 155,000 mt crushed in the same period last year.
