Petrobras BiocombustÍvel and Grupo São Martinho to invest in sugarcane plant expansion

In Quirinópolis in Goiás, Brazil, Petrobras Biocombustível and Grupo São Martinho, through Nova Fronteira, are planning to increase the sugarcane milling capacity of the Boa Vista plant with an R$520.7 million (€226 million) investment.

The expansion will be completed ready for the 2014/2015 harvest, increasing the plant's capacity to 8 million tonnes of sugarcane.

Since the facility's startup in 2008, its sugarcane processing capacity has increased slowly from year to year. In the 2010/2011 season, 2 million tonnes of sugarcane was processed, compared to 2.3 million tonnes in the 2011/2012 harvest.

R$430.5 million of the total investment will be used to purchase industrial equipment and R$90.2 million will go towards acquiring agriculture equipment.

The expansion is slated for completion in 2014 when the Boa Vista facility will be able to produce 700 million litres of ethanol a year, in addition to 600,000MWh of electricity. This will make it the largest unit dedicated exclusively to the production of ethanol from sugarcane in the world.

The plant will provide both direct and indirect jobs for 3,000 jobs.