Philippine sugar giant Roxas to build ethanol plant

In the Philippines, sugar giant Roxas Holdings said it will spend $120 million on expansion, including more than $20 million earmarked for a blackstrap molasses ethanol plant. The ethanol plant will commence production in 2009 with an initial capacity of 10 Mgy.

The announcement continues a string of developments for the Philippines that have become public since the national government laid out a biofuels policy with emphasis on capacity expansion.

President Macapagal-Arroyo’s program is to develop 2 million hectares for agribusiness and create 2 million jobs by 2010. The DA said that as of last August, 38,000 hectares were being developed for biofuels, primarily in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat provinces and Gen. Santos City.

This year, eight other Philippine companies have pledged more than $350 million towards biofuels production investment.

The companies include: Bio-Energy NL, Inc.; E-Cane/Pampanga Industrial Park Corp.; Philippine Agricultural Land Development and Mill, Inc (PALM, Inc.); and Zambo Norte Bioenergy; Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corp., Guidance Management Corp., Fuel, Inc. and Eastern Petroleum.

The Philippines have a B1 and E5 mandate scheduled to go into effect in 2009, rising to B2 and E10 in 2011. Philippine demand for biofuels is expected to rise to 187 million galls of ethanol and 54 gallons of biodiesel by 2011.

Last month, a US$30 million cassava ethanol plant was announced. The plant, financed jointly by the Filipino oil company Eastern Petroleum and Guanxi Estates of China, will commence construction in Mindanao in late 2008, and will use cassava from a 4200 hectare plantation in Saranggani province.

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