Our business
GRI 102-2 | 102-6 | 102-11 | 103-1 | 103-2 | 103-3 | 416-1
Copersucar and its partner mills providing the sugar and ethanol traded by the company adopt best practices to assure the traceability and sustainability of the products sold to clients in Brazil and abroad.
Raw
crystal sugar
Is sold in bulk on a large scale mainly to foreign markets (large refineries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, among others).
Whyte
crystal sugar
The main crystal sugar types are Very High Polarization (VHP) and Very High Polarization Plus (VHP Plus). It is sold in big bags of 1,200 kilograms to food and beverage manufacturers and in 50 kilogram bags to both the domestic and foreign markets.
Anhydrous
ethanol
Comprised of 99.3% pure ethanol, anhydrous ethanol is sold to fuel distributors and added to gasoline at a proportion of 27%, as determined by the Brazilian government.
Hydrous ethanol
Comprised of up to 7.5% water, hydrous ethanol is sold to distributors, which sell it to consumers at gas stations.
Copersucar’s logistics
Multimodal terminals for road, rail, sea and ethanol pipeline transport.
Bonsucro™
Bonsucro™ certification is a global benchmark for sustainability in the production of sugarcane and its derivatives. It analyses the chain’s entire process and the impacts on biodiversity, on the ecosystem and on human and labor rights. It also assesses how production and continuous improvement requirements are being met.
Since 2011, Copersucar and eight partner mills have been certified by Bonsucro. Certified production responds for a volume of 11 million tons of sugarcane. In 2015, a few months after it began operating, Alvean was certified by Bonsucro.
Market requirements for ethanol
The ethanol sold by Copersucar in the U.S. meets federal regulatory requirements set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), specifically for the California market. For the European market, in addition to Bonsucro certification the company adopts the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC). For sales in Japan, Copersucar meets the requirements defined by the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
These and other market quality standards met by Copersucar and its partner mills are major tools to provide clients with proof-of-origin and traceability guarantees for the products sold. They encompass adoption of best social and environment practices from growing sugarcane to converting it into raw material.
- Market certifications and requirements
- Total number of mills that meet the standard
- ISO 22000 Certification – Food Safety Management System
- 9
- FSSC 22000 Certification – Food Safety System Certification 22000
- 6
- Kosher
- 12
- Bonsucro™
- 8
- RFS2 (Renewable Fuel Standard)/Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- 33
- METI (Japan)
- 27
- LCFS (Low Carbon Fuel Standard)/California Air Resources Board (CARB)
- 11
- SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit)
- 8
Sugar
GRI 102-12 | 103-1 | 103-2 | 103-3
Copersucar’s sugar reaches clients in both the Brazilian and foreign markets. In Brazil, the main food and beverage industries buy white and raw crystal sugar and sales are supported by a specific team. On the foreign market, sales are conducted via Alvean and the main clients for our sugar are refineries in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
In the 2017-2018 crop year, Copersucar sold 4.5 million tons of sugar, the same volume as for the 2016-2017 crop year, when excluding prepaid exports. Export volume accounted for 2.9 million tons in the last crop year and 2.7 million tons in the previous crop year.
The 2017-2018 crop year marked the third full year in which Alvean operated as a major player in the global sugar market. The establishment of the trading company in partnership with Cargill, in 2014, was a successful move in Copersucar’s internationalization strategy.
In accordance with the business model, Alvean turned into the exclusive buyer of Copersucar’s sugar destined for the foreign market, becoming very active at origination and also acquiring white and raw crystal sugar for export from other sources in Brazil and from other production hubs in the world.
This model of activity expanded Alvean’s market share of the sugar market and increased the scale at which Copersucar’s logistics infrastructure is used, as the company is the preferential provider of these services to Alvean (learn more here).
Client relationship
On the Brazilian market, Copersucar’s role goes beyond delivering sugar to food and beverage industries. In this segment, the company fulfills its mission of connecting field to industry, investing in long-term relationships that allow the demands of the large producers to be identified. It thus contributes towards improving the production process of the mills, which produce and supply the raw material.
One of Copersucar’s objectives is to bring sugar producers closer to the reality of the industrial sugar market. In the 2017-2018 crop year, the company held five workshops with partner mills to discuss the actions undertaken in industrial processes for improving product quality.
The workshops included presentation of cases developed by the mills and the sharing of experiences and knowledge to help prevent sugar from caking and colour changes, among other things. With this initiative, Copersucar seeks to reduce occurrences of client-reported non-conformances to the technical aspects of the products and to disseminate the best practices adopted by partner mills.
The proximity to the technical areas of the mills has also allowed advances in the use of new technologies and solutions that improve the performance of sugar in the clients’ production processes. Since 2015, Copersucar has developed a project to enhance filterability and reduce turbidity of sugar syrup used in the production of beverages.
The initiative involves the use of the alpha-amylase enzyme in the production of white crystal sugar. The biotechnology improves aspects such as color reduction, crystallization and flocculation, as well as benefitting filterability. In 2017, some partner mills carried out a pilot project to test the solution and as of the 2018-2019 crop year all producers will be able to use it in the production process of type 3C raw and white crystal sugar, with assurance that the end product will not have residual traces of the enzyme.
Copersucar was a supporter of the “Doce Equilíbrio” project, which was developed by UNICA to inform the public about the benefits of sugar as part of a balanced diet and a lifestyle that combines physical activity and healthcare. Growing obesity in the world’s population, especially among children and young people, has led to a surge of organized campaigns that tend to spread information without a scientific basis and which in some cases is questionable as regards the impacts of sugar consumption on human health.
In view of this scenario, between 2015 and 2018 UNICA developed the project in order to divulge accurate and useful information about the product for consumers, the media, government agencies and other actors in the value chain. The “Doce Equilíbrio” platform had the support of multidisciplinary experts and spontaneous media reports, as well as a blog and publications on social media networks.
Among the content produced are educational texts about sugar and recipes that help to position the product as one of the ingredients for a more pleasurable, healthy and well-balanced life.
Ethanol
GRI 102-12 | 103-1 | 103-2 | 103-3 | 201-2
Direct operations in Brazil combined with the operations undertaken by Eco-Energy, Copersucar’s full subsidiary in the U.S., has led to the company’s creating the largest ethanol sale and distribution platform in the world. This integration allows synergy gains, as these markets are the largest producers and consumers of ethanol in the world, with import and export opportunities in both countries. Part of the ethanol is also sold in Japan and South Korea, thus broadening the range of environmental benefits brought about by the Brazilian product.
The continuous evolution of the sugarcane ethanol production chain, with particular attention to environmental issues makes the Brazilian biofuel one of the most efficient options for greenhouse gas reduction and climate change combat. The capacity of the mills to generate energy needed for production via biomass (sugarcane bagasse) along with gains in transport of raw materials reduce their carbon footprint in relation to other biofuels.
In the 2017-2018 crop year, Copersucar sold 4.3 billion liters of anhydrous and hydrous ethanol. In the 2016-2017 crop year the volume was 4.2 billion liters. Of the total traded in the last crop year, 3.6 billion liters went to the domestic market and 0.7 billion liters to the foreign market. In the 2016-2017 crop year the breakdown was 3.7 billion liters to Brazil and 0.5 billion liters for export.
Copersucar’s ethanol strategy in the last biennium included the structuring of long-term contracts with Brazilian clients. In this way the company has managed to reduce its exposure to trading market volatility and to obtain structural results, adding value via logistics services.
In line with its strategy of broadening the internationalization of its business and structural gains, at the end of the 2016-2017 crop year, Copersucar completed the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Eco-Energy, as part of a process that began in 2012.
As in Brazil, Copersucar has sought to widen its structural gains in the U.S. through investments in logistics. Before 2012, Eco-Energy owned only half of a terminal.
In the 2016-2018 biennium, investments in assets for Eco-Energy totaled BRL 114.1 million. The resources were destined for the completion of three new multimodal ethanol terminals and for building a new terminal, bringing the number of terminals in the U.S. to nine.
The RenovaBio Program, which was developed by the Brazilian government to increase the presence of biofuels in Brazil’s energy matrix, has the potential to give a fresh boost to the country’s ethanol investments and production. As a leader in the sector in Brazil, Copersucar actively participated in discussions and contributed ideas and proposals, leading to the formulation of a public policy aligned with a national strategy to decarbonize the economy. The policy was sanctioned in December 2017 by the President of Brazil under Law 13.576.
For the next biennium, the sector expects that the Executive Branch will regulate the RenovaBio Program implementation. The approved legislation foresees the possibility for Brazilian fuel distributors to have individual targets to reduce or offset their greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the use of fossil fuels, such as gasoline.
To offset their emissions, distributors can opt to purchase Cbios, which are monetary securities issued by biofuel producers, among which Copersucar’s partner mills. Each Cbio certifies that one ton of CO2 ceased to be emitted into the atmosphere due to ethanol production and use. This ratio will be guaranteed by the RenovaCalc calculator, which measures the intensity of biofuel carbon (gCO2e/MJ) in its life cycle. This standard is under development by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa), Unicamp University and the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory (CTBE).
For the sugar-energy sector, the main contribution from RenovaBio is to provide greater predictability for the insertion of ethanol into the energy matrix. By recognizing and pricing the environmental benefits of biofuel, the government policy creates incentives for producers to plan production increases and invest with the aim of obtaining long-term sustainable results.
Logistics
GRI 102-10
Copersucar has a logistics infrastructure in place in Brazil for the transport of sugar and ethanol, which includes warehousing facilities and transshipment terminals and a wide-ranging road, rail and maritime contract transport network. Along with its partner mills, the company boasts the largest sugar (2.5 million tons) and ethanol (3 billion liters) storage capacity in Brazil.
In the past two crop years, Copersucar has consolidated itself as an important logistics operator for the sugar-energy sector and reached the target of structuring the segment as a company’s own business unit, thus maximizing the use of its assets through the provision of services for Alvean and other clients, both in the transportation of goods and in port lifting capacity.
In freight logistics, there was significant increase in handling products from non-partner mills that supply Alvean. Of the total of 5.5 million tons of bulk sugar transported in the 2017-2018 crop year, 48% originated from non-partner mills. The rail modality accounted for 56% of transport to the port confirming Copersucar’s competitive edge, which is the fruit of its logistics infrastructure integrated with intermodal terminals located in the interior of São Paulo State.
Efficient terminals
The strategic location of the terminals in the interior of the state, close to the main sugarcane producing areas, is a competitive edge for Copersucar’s logistics structure, reinforced by the export terminal in the port of Santos. Furthermore, the operating efficiency of these assets has resulted in significant productivity gains.
In the last biennium, the Copersucar Sugar Terminal (TAC) in Santos set up the Operations Control Center (CCO), which allows real-time monitoring of all of the activities, from the reception and dispatch of goods to handling them at silos and hoppers. With greater efficiency, the TAC handled 5.584 million tons of products during the 2017-2018 crop year and 6.144 million tons during 2016-2017. In the 2017-2018 crop year, the Ribeirão Preto Terminal handled around 1.0 million tons of sugar, a volume close to the previous year record.
In February 2018, Copersucar promoted the integration of the workers of the São José do Rio Preto Miltimodal Terminal with its own team. Through initiatives like this, the company seeks to standardize management and operating processes and obtain efficiency and productivity gains by improving maintenance and safety activities.
Another development from the last crop year was a joint venture with BP Biocombustíveis to operate the Paulínia fuel terminal independently. The partnership was formalized in March 2018, with the establishment of TCE Participações S.A. Each partner has a 50% stake in the new company. The purpose of the joint venture is to make the terminal more efficient in handling ethanol and thus optimize the use of assets and biofuel distribution channels.
In addition to productivity, the terminals operations are focused on the safety of Copersucar employees. In the last biennium, the company continued implementation of Operação Segura, a safety program begun in 2015 at the Santos TAC and extended to other terminals in the 2016-2017 crop year. The chief goal of Operação Segura is the identification of risks in operations and the continuous improvement of safety procedures, with a focus on risk mitigation, raising employee awareness and training (learn more here).
Continuous operational improvement
At the start of 2017, Copersucar structured the Integrated Continuous Improvement System (SIM), a program to increase the efficiency of processes and strengthen the culture of continuous improvement among employees. In its first year, the initiatives implemented by the Copersucar Sugar Terminal (TAC) at Santos (São Paulo State) resulted in gains, such as growth in the daily average unloaded and a 12.6% increase in productivity.
Based on the Lean management philosophy, SIM started off at TAC and has been extended to other Copersucar terminals. Among the initiatives developed are the Kaizen Weeks, which encourage employees to observe logistics procedures and then identify waste and propose actions for greater efficiency. Kaizen is one of the Lean tools for improving productivity.
Throughout 2017, 118 Kaizens were conducted resulting in:
Another area of activity within SIM is employee training. Training sessions held in 2017 totaled 272 hours. Four new programs have been scheduled for 2018 to be given to teams at the terminals.
The positive results obtained by SIM led the program to be extended to partner mills, in a preliminary format of monitoring indicators. Together with sugar and ethanol producers, Copersucar monitors continuous improvement indicators related to the following aspects: Service; Quality; Sustainability; Efficiency and Productivity; and Infrastructure and Processes.
SIM was introduced to the mills in June 2017. The results and improvements obtained will be monitored in the following crop years and the expectation is that the tool will become ever more robust for monitoring the development of processes, reducing noncompliance and disseminating best practices among the mills.
Rail is a competitive edge to Copersucar’s sugar logistics infrastructure. The company has more than 500 Hopper wagons, which makes unloading of the product swifter.
In the last two crop years the company transported 6 million tons of sugar by rail, increasing cost efficiency and reducing the environmental impact from road transport.
There is continuous monitoring of operations compliance with the specification parameters for sugar cargoes, in order to improve the product’s handling conditions and reduce particulates emission. In the 2016-2017 crop year, 76 refusals were recorded totaling 3,278 tons of sugar sent back to its origin, the equivalent of 0.07% of the total volume handled at the terminals. In the 2017-2018 crop year, the number of refusals fell to 53, totaling 2,014 tons (0.05% of the total) sent back.
Copersucar also monitors occurrences of packaging damaged at the clients’ facilities, which poses a safety risk when handling cargo. The rate of cases stemming from this type of complaint was 3.3% in the 2016-2017 crop year and it fell to 0.16% in the 2017-2018 crop year.
In partnership with Logum, a Copersucar affiliated company, ethanol distribution has become more agile and efficient through the use of pipelines that connect production hubs to distribution centers. The Ethanol Logistics System, also known as the etanolduto (ethanol pipeline) went into operation in 2013 and currently links the biofuel producing regions of the Brazilian Mid-West region, Minas Gerais and São Paulo states to the consumer hubs of Campinas, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The etanolduto is served by 351 kilometers of pipeline between the cities of Uberaba, Ribeirão Preto and Paulínia.
The Paulínia fuel terminal in São Paulo State is integrated to the pipelines system. In the 2016-2017 crop year this terminal also began interlinked operations with the Paulínia Refinery, following authorization from the Brazilian Regulatory Oil and Biofuels Agency (ANP) for its new pipeline branches.
