LONDON: Sugar futures on ICE rose to multi-week peaks on Thursday as speculators continued to cover short positions amid signs that less sugar from India and Brazil is likely to make its way to the global market.
The New York and London softs markets will shut for public holidays on Monday and will reopen on Tuesday.
SUGAR
* August white sugar was up $4.50, or 1.3 percent, at $353.90 a tonne by 1014 GMT. It earlier touched $354.70, the highest since April 14.
Prices have rallied this week as India considers ways to help its sugar industry, including the creation of a sugar stockpile and incentives for mills to churn out more ethanol.
July raw sugar rose by 0.11 cents, or 0.9 percent, to 12.46 cents per lb after touching 12.47 cents, its highest since April 3.
Dealers pointed to persistent short-covering by funds, which was only being met by opportunistic selling by producers seeking to lock in higher pricing.
“The investors are finding plenty of producer selling to help clear their positions,” said Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey. “But clearly investors are only finding that selling by bidding higher levels.”
Prices remained well-supported by a diminished outlook for Brazil, where recent dry weather could curb production while low prices continue to encourage mills to allocate more cane to ethanol.
Market participants were awaiting cane crush data for the first half of May – due on Thursday – for indications on output from the country’s key centre-south region.
An S&P Global Platts survey of analysts forecast a crush of 41.1 million tonnes, a record high for that time period and a 6.6 percent rise year on year.
However, Brazilian mills are expected to have allocated only 37.7 percent of cane to sugar, the lowest for that period since 2015/16.
Some Brazilian sugar mills in the centre-south region have reduced cane harvesting work because of short diesel fuel supplies owing to a nationwide truckers protest.
COFFEE
July arabica coffee rose 0.8 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $1.2015 per lb.
July robusta coffee fell $5, or 0.3 percent, to $1,756 a tonne after falling sharply in the previous session.
Weather in top grower Vietnam was favourable, but physical differentials have narrowed and trade has slowed amid tight supplies, traders said on Thursday.
COCOA
July London cocoa fell by 5 pounds, or 0.3 percent, to 1,877 pounds a tonne.
July New York cocoa was unchanged at $2,618 a tonne.
Source: Brecorder
