Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Maple Energy Plc, the Peruvian
company that made more than 99 percent of its revenue from
selling petroleum products in 2011, expects to get more than
half its business from ethanol sales this year as its $254
million sugar-cane mill expands production.
The company will generate more earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation, and amortization from sugar cane than from
refining oil in the first full year of the ethanol plant’s
operation, Chief Executive Officer Rex Canon said today in a
telephone interview. Ebitda was about $16 million in 2011.
Maple Energy, based in Lima, is shifting to selling ethanol
because it can sell the fuel in Europe for twice what it costs
to make, Canon said.
“This will be a transformational year for us,” he said.
“We’ve been working on this for quite some time. Just right now
we’re realizing the fruits of all this work.”
Making and transporting ethanol to Europe may cost as
little as $1.60 a gallon (3.8 liters), he said. Ethanol now
sells at about $3.20 a gallon in Rotterdam.
Maple expects its yields to reach 150 million metric tons a
year at its cane fields in Peru, where the climate permits a
near-year-round growing season and output is boosted by drip-
irrigation systems. That’s almost double the typical yields of
80 tons a year at mills in Brazil, the world’s biggest ethanol
producer after the U.S., he said.
The plant, in the northern coastal region of Piura, has
annual production capacity of 35 million gallons of ethanol. It
went into production in April and processed 579,000 tons of cane
in 2012.
The company will boost its cane plantations to about 7,800
hectares (19,300 acres) this year, from 6,532 hectares at the
end of last year, he said.
Maple produces 500 barrels of oil a day and buys 1,500
barrels of natural gas a day for processing at a petroleum
refinery it owns in Peru’s central jungle, he said. The company
makes aviation fuel and solvents among other products.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Stephan Nielsen in Sao Paulo at
snielsen8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
