Odebrecht Ethanol Shop Buys Mill

Brazil’s ETH Bioenergy has agreed to purchase the Usina Eldorado sugarcane mill in Mato Grosso do Sul state. The unit of construction conglomerate Odebrecht does not state the price for the acquisition, but plans to pay BRL700m for the mill and investments necessary to boost crushing capacity to 5m metric tons of cane per year from 2.2m. It also plans to increase electric cogeneration capacity to 130MW from 12MW. The purchase will give ETH two operating mills, in addition to nine greenfield projects. ETH expects to crush 8m tones per year by the 2009-2010 season when the first of its greenfield projects comes online.