Bolivia will build ecological diesel and biodiesel plants to reduce imports of liquid fuels, Hydrocarbon and Energy Minister Franklin Molina announced over this past weekend.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro effectively ruled out raising gasoline taxes on Thursday, a blow to the ethanol industry which had asked for a gasoline tax hike to boost its competitiveness amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Brazilian sugar companies are increasing their capacity to produce ethanol in the face of depressed global sugar prices and government policies expected to boost demand for the biofuel. A shift to ethanol in the 2018-19 season slashed Brazil’s sugar output by 9 million tons to a 12-year low and more switching to the biofuel next season could help to wipe out a global surplus weighing on sugar prices.
The U.S. decision to review its tariffs on Argentine biodiesel could mean a reversal of fortune for exporters whose shipments from South America have been practically nil, the biodiesel chamber of Argentina said on Thursday.
The U.S. Commerce Department piled on more import duties on biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia, adding anti-dumping duties of 60.44% to 276.65% to already steep anti-subsidy duties on the fuels.
FS Bioenergia, a joint venture between Brazilian and U.S.-based investors, said on Tuesday it will build its second corn-based ethanol plant in Brazil’s top grains-producing state of Mato Grosso. FS Bioenergia, the first venture to build a 100 percent corn-based ethanol plant in Brazil - where basically all ethanol is made from sugar cane - said it will spend 1 billion reais (US$ 308 million) on the project.
A market study tour in January to Argentina and Brazil by the US state of Illinois Farm Bureau helped farm bureau leaders and Illinois farmers learn more about their chief competitors. Tamara Nelsen, senior director of commodities at the Illinois Farm Bureau, said the original plan to go to Canada and Mexico was scrapped due to anti-trade rhetoric, which led experts to point them to South America.
European Union ambassadors agreed on Thursday to withdraw an appeal to the European Court of Justice meaning the bloc will have to accept its verdict annulling anti-dumping duties imposed on imports of biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia.
Jets in Europe will soon run on eco-fuel produced from vegetable oil and animal fat. The new fuel will be mixed with traditional kerosene. According to latest reports, planes running on the mixture of renewable and traditional fuel will start flying next year from Geneva in Switzerland.
Brazil's oil company Petrobras has agreed to sell its 49% stake in the sugar and ethanol joint venture Nova Fronteira Bioenergia SA to partner São Martinho SA, both companies said in securities filings on Thursday. Petrobras will receive 24 million new São Martinho shares as payment for the stake. Petrobras said in the filing that it will attribute a US$133 million value to the deal.