The government's decision to make blended fuels attractive to oil companies has raised the sugar industry's hopes of an imminent increase in ethanol demand in the country. More than 20 sugar mills nation-wide already have installed capacities to produce ethanol. The government has also moved further towards total decontrol of sugar by allowing mills to sell 90% of their production in the open market. Consequently, mills would have to give only 10% of their output to the centre for PDS. The government expects a futures exchange to become operational by November this year. Sugar mills already get soft loans from the Sugar Development Fund to set up ethanol capacities. However, the move towards complete decontrol has not cheered industry sentiment as it was widely expected and, therefore already discounted by the market. |