The grain-processing plant will be located just north of Rosario, the main agro-industrial hub in Argentina, which is the world’s largest supplier of soymeal and soyoil.

The plant will have “the capacity to generate its own energy and a port for exports of beans and their derivatives,” Molinos (MOL.BA) said in a statement sent to the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange.

The biodiesel producer Renova, in which the three firms have an equal stake, will build the plant.

Molinos, one of Argentina’s main agricultural and food firms, is controlled by local businessman Gregorio Perez Companc. Oleaginosa Moreno Hermanos is indirectly owned by commodities trader Glencore [GLEN.UL]. (Reporting by Jorge Otaola; writing by Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Jim Marshall).

SOURCE: REUTERS

It would begin with the super and common types due to the lack of the capacity to process alcohol.Â

The 5% bioethanol mix in the naphtha won’t reach to all the varieties in January of 2010 as it was foreseen, but rather it will begin with the super and ultra types due to the lack of dehydrating plants to transform the alcohol. As confirmed to La Nacion by sugar companies involved in the business and the Argentinean Sugar Center that pointed out that May 15 will conquer the term to present the projects for the bioethanol quota before the Secretary of Energy. Fernando Nebbia, president of the Argentinean Sugar Center, said: “For January there will be an important quantity of dehydrated alcohol to begin the operative with two types of naphtha: common and ultra. Â

Starting from the second semester, when other plants enter in regime, the super naphtha will be included.”Â

“We are speaking of this and negotiating with the Secretary of Energy and the oil companies. Everything is clear and spoken”, he affirmed. From an important sugar industry, they also pointed out the segmentation by naphtha type as the most immediate alternative. LA NACION consulted the Energy portfolio, but had no answer at all.Â

The plant that will cause a pothole in the production and won’t be operative the first days of 2010, will be the one projected by Atanor, Refinor and other sugar factories of Tucumán that will have a annual production capacity superior to 130.000 cubic meters. Jorge Domínguez, industrial director of Atanor, explained: “The construction of this type of projects demands a year and half and didn’t still begin because there are some numbers yet to be defined. It will be ready to start towards the end of 2010, not at the beginning of January.”Â

“The sugar industry is the natural bioethanol supplier and Tucuman is the biggest producer. Then, I don’t believe that the 270.000 m3 or 270 million liters that are considered to achieve the 5% mix will be met. The Secretary of Energy can defer the implementation of the law, it can define imports or, even, delimit the application”, he said.. In the same line, sources of Ledesma highlighted: “An interesting volume will be achieved with the foreseen plants, but without that of Atanor the 5 percent that was foreseen won’t be met.”Â

Projects and capacitiesÂ

The dehydrating plants of the big players that will be ready to satisfy to the oil companies will be those of Ledesma, Tabacal and The Florida, as they pointed out both of the first ones.Â
From Tabacal, they specified that the company would make off with 10 percent of the quota. In that line, they detailed that “the company began before with the investment and the construction. The plant will have capacity to process 45 million liters per year, and our quota would be of 27 millions”. on the other hand, in Ledesma, that is “working strongly to reach January with the plant”, they explained that it will produce in 2010 around 55 million liters of alcohol to destine to the internal hydrating market and to the new market of fuel alcohol. “The dehydrator will have the same capacity and the idea is to buy alcohols to other sugar factories”, they added.Â

Mercedes García BarteltÂ

Source: La Nación

IT WILL TURN THEM INTO THE MAYOR LOCAL PRODUCERS.

The cereal companies, that the Renova company conformed, will duplicate their present capacity in July, when they inaugurate new works. Thus, they will surpass AGD and Bunge, and Dreyfus.

Biodiesel plant/Photo: Fernando López King

The local cereal Vicentín and the multinational Glencore are building a second biodiesel plant elaborated from soya in San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, that will be ready between June and July of this year. This way, they hope to duplicate the production capacity of this biofuel that they have from last October, when they inaugurated in that point of the santafesino agro-industrial cord, one of the two majors factories in the country, with a production capacity of 240,000 annual tons.

Managers of both companies confirmed the project, although they preferred not to give more precisions. The plant that is operative, according to what was announced at the time, counts with a unit of crude soya oil refining with a capacity for 330,000 annual tons, that demanded an investment of u$s 40 million.

Renova, the company under which they merged in this business, is one of the two mayor biofuel exporting companies of the country. In fact, along with Ecofuel (the company of the other national-multinational cereal pair, Bunge and Aceitera General Deheza (AGD), that has the same present  production capacity and technology that Renova), were responsible for more of 90% of the exports of that product last year. According to the Secretary of Agriculture, in 2007, the sales of the exported biodiesel reached u$s 268 million, that came from 319,093 dispatched tons (equivalent to a value of u$s 841 per ton). Of those shipments, almost three quarters (73%) were destined to the United States, whereas the rest went to countries of Europe.

Interest of several

In the country there are eight qualified companies to export these vegetal fuels. Besides Renova and Ecofuel, the other plant that has certain weight in the export is the one that has Vicentín in its place of origin, Avellaneda, in the north of Santa Fe, with a capacity of 47,500 tons. The others are Biomadero, with a capacity for 72,000 tons, located in the Buenosairean locality of Villa Madero; Soy Energy, in the Buenosairean locality of Pilar, with a capacity for 32,400 tons; Energía Sanluiseña Refinería Argentina, in the city of Villa Mercedes, with a capacity for 30,000 tons; Advanced Organic Materials (AOM), also in the Buenosairean Pilar, with a capacity for 15,800 tons, and Biodiesel, in the santafesina Sancti Spiritu, with a capacity for 6,480 tons.

There are another five projects under construction, all in Santa Fe. Unitec Bio, of the media entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian, of 220,000 annual tons. Mills, food company of the Perez Companc family, began to construct a plant in Rosario, with a capacity for 100,000 tons. The French Trader Louis Dreyfus is building a greater plant, of 300,000 tons, in its General Lagos complex. Explora will produce 120,000 tons in Puerto San Martin, and Patagonia Bioenergía, 250,000 in San Lorenzo. Mean while, ACA just announced their association with two European companies to build a mega-plants of 250,000 tons of biodiesel in Puerto San Martin.

Alejandra Groba Buenos Aires

Source: Cronista.com