São Paulo – Copersucar, the leading sugar and ethanol exporting company in Brazil, and the Jamal Al-Ghurair Group, based in the United Arab Emirates, announced the establishment of the Copa Shipping Company Limited, a maritime freight company for transporting sugar and ethanol cargo shipped by its partner companies.
The Jamal Al-Ghurair Group (JAG) is the owner of Al Khaleej Sugar (AKS), the largest sugar refinery in the world, located in Dubai, in the Emirates. According to a press release issued by Copersucar, the goal in establishing the Copa Shipping Company is to increase the competitiveness and quality of delivery services to its clients and the JAG’s. Each partner company will own 50% of the new company’s capital.
Copa Shipping will begin operating in the first quarter this year, making deliveries across all continents. The new company will own offices and operations in Brazil and Dubai, and will be managed by maritime freight professionals.
According to information supplied by Copersucar, the company should transport 2 million to 3 million tonnes of sugar as early as the 2011-2012 crop, a figure that includes raw sugar shipped to Dubai by the Brazilian company and the AKS’ exports of refined sugar.
Besides, according to an article published on the Valor Econômico newspaper, Copa Shipping will be in charge of ethanol transport. In 2011, the Brazilian company is going to use the new company’s freight services to carry 600 million litres of the fuel.
The release issued by Copersucar also states that 1.5 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 897 million) will be invested in ground logistics up until 2015, mostly in maritime terminals, railway transport and ethanol pipelines.
Copersucar
In the 2011-2012 crop, Copersucar expects to sell 8.1 million tonnes of sugar, a 27% increase over the previous, and 5.2 billion litres of ethanol, 25% more using the same basis of comparison. Exports should reach 6 million tonnes of sugar. The company currently has 48 associated processing plants.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
