0.1m tonnes of raw sugar to reach Ctg port in 4-6 weeks
Friday, 6 January 2012
Nizam Ahmed
As part of regular imports some 100,000 tonnes of raw sugar are expected to reach Chittagong port in next four to six weeks from Brazil, traders said on Thursday.
Most the country's annual requirement of about 1.5 million tonnes are met by refining imported raw sugar mainly from Brazil, the biggest producer of the sweetener.
To produce the required quantity of refined sugar some 2.0 million tonnes of imported raw sugar are needed annually, refiners said.
Refiners expect to have good margin from marketing refined sugar in the coming months, even without hiking consumer price from the present level, as prices of raw sugar are at reasonable limit in the beginning of the 2012 following a higher global production in the outgoing crop-season.
Raw sugar price has fallen sharply to 23.13 cents (Tk 19) a lb (pound - 0.454 kg) at London market last week from 36 cents per lb in early 2011 - the highest in the last 30 years.
The prices are likely to slide down to 20 cents a lb by end-March as an expected big global surplus of sugarcane, which is still being harvested in Brazil following higher yield, market monitors said.
However the refiners maintain that despite a substantial fall in price in global market, prices cannot be lowered at consumer-level in the country from the current level, because of high price of other inputs, including fuel, electricity, transportation etc.
Moreover they said in the past years until the middle of 2011 they had to remain satisfied with break-even level of return, only to continue to hold stake in the trade.
"However to get benefit from the fall of price to this (above) level we have to wait at least more than a couple of months, because buying, shipping, refining, stocking etc take a lot of lime," Mohammed Abul Basher, a leading importer of the country, told the FE.
The prices started falling in the global market following higher production in the European Union (EU), Russia, Ukraine, India and Thailand, market monitors said.
All the seven sugar refineries in private sector have a total refining capacity of more than 3.0 million tonnes a year.
There is no sugar refinery in the public sector, which however runs some 15 state-owned sugar crushing mills with an annual production capacity of about 210,500 tonnes.
But in fact the sugar crushing mills in the public sector produce some 100,000 tonnes a year, officials of the state-managed Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) said.
"But we cannot produce at the level of optimum capacity, due to shortage of sugarcanes, as farmers prefer their crop for yielding molasses for higher return," Yahya Mian, a senior officer of the BSFIC told the FE.
As part of regular imports some 100,000 tonnes of raw sugar are expected to reach Chittagong port in next four to six weeks from Brazil, traders said on Thursday.
Most the country's annual requirement of about 1.5 million tonnes are met by refining imported raw sugar mainly from Brazil, the biggest producer of the sweetener.
To produce the required quantity of refined sugar some 2.0 million tonnes of imported raw sugar are needed annually, refiners said.
Refiners expect to have good margin from marketing refined sugar in the coming months, even without hiking consumer price from the present level, as prices of raw sugar are at reasonable limit in the beginning of the 2012 following a higher global production in the outgoing crop-season.
Raw sugar price has fallen sharply to 23.13 cents (Tk 19) a lb (pound - 0.454 kg) at London market last week from 36 cents per lb in early 2011 - the highest in the last 30 years.
The prices are likely to slide down to 20 cents a lb by end-March as an expected big global surplus of sugarcane, which is still being harvested in Brazil following higher yield, market monitors said.
However the refiners maintain that despite a substantial fall in price in global market, prices cannot be lowered at consumer-level in the country from the current level, because of high price of other inputs, including fuel, electricity, transportation etc.
Moreover they said in the past years until the middle of 2011 they had to remain satisfied with break-even level of return, only to continue to hold stake in the trade.
"However to get benefit from the fall of price to this (above) level we have to wait at least more than a couple of months, because buying, shipping, refining, stocking etc take a lot of lime," Mohammed Abul Basher, a leading importer of the country, told the FE.
The prices started falling in the global market following higher production in the European Union (EU), Russia, Ukraine, India and Thailand, market monitors said.
All the seven sugar refineries in private sector have a total refining capacity of more than 3.0 million tonnes a year.
There is no sugar refinery in the public sector, which however runs some 15 state-owned sugar crushing mills with an annual production capacity of about 210,500 tonnes.
But in fact the sugar crushing mills in the public sector produce some 100,000 tonnes a year, officials of the state-managed Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) said.
"But we cannot produce at the level of optimum capacity, due to shortage of sugarcanes, as farmers prefer their crop for yielding molasses for higher return," Yahya Mian, a senior officer of the BSFIC told the FE.