Brazil cuts ethanol blend to 20% as stocks hit lows

RechargeNews.com
January 13, 2010

The world’s largest sugar-cane ethanol producer and consumer has lowered its mandated ethanol-gasoline blend as stocks of the biofuel hit lows and prices rise.

Brazil has a minimum blend of 25%, which will be lowered to 20% in February for three months, until the sugar-cane harvest begins.

Flex-fuel cars that can run on any mix of gasoline and ethanol are increasingly common on the roads of the South American nation, and at the pump consumers can choose between gasoline with the ethanol blend or pure ethanol.

Until recently, ethanol prices had been lower than oil prices here, the latter of which are determined by the state-owned, semi-private oil company, Petrobras, and are generally higher than international prices.

Read the full story