Refined sugar's premium to plunge 33pc
Friday, 11 June 2010
SINGAPORE, June 10 (Bloomberg): The premium of refined sugar over the raw variety may plunge as much as 33 per cent by the fourth quarter as the global market swings into a surplus after two years of deficit.
The gap between the most-active white and raw sweetener futures will drop to $110 a metric tonne from $164.86 a tonne May 24, the highest level since at least 1989, according to the median estimate of a Bloomberg survey of 11 millers, exporters and importers from Thailand to India from June 2 to 9.
Raw-sugar has plunged about 50 per cent from its 29-year high of 30.4 cents a pound in New York on February 1, and is down 43 per cent this year on prospects for increased production in Brazil and India, the top two growers. The refined sweetener has dropped 29 percent, widening the gap between the two varieties.
More "refined sugar from Brazil and elsewhere will be available in the third and fourth quarters," Parin Amatyakul, vice president of Mitr Phol Sugar Corp, the largest miller in Thailand, said in an interview Wednesday. "That comes as demand from Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, which helped drive the white sugar rally, dries up."
The premium of the refined sweetener over the raw variety for March delivery, likely to be the most-active contract by the fourth quarter, was $86.1415 a tonne Wednesday.
The gap between the most-active white and raw sweetener futures will drop to $110 a metric tonne from $164.86 a tonne May 24, the highest level since at least 1989, according to the median estimate of a Bloomberg survey of 11 millers, exporters and importers from Thailand to India from June 2 to 9.
Raw-sugar has plunged about 50 per cent from its 29-year high of 30.4 cents a pound in New York on February 1, and is down 43 per cent this year on prospects for increased production in Brazil and India, the top two growers. The refined sweetener has dropped 29 percent, widening the gap between the two varieties.
More "refined sugar from Brazil and elsewhere will be available in the third and fourth quarters," Parin Amatyakul, vice president of Mitr Phol Sugar Corp, the largest miller in Thailand, said in an interview Wednesday. "That comes as demand from Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, which helped drive the white sugar rally, dries up."
The premium of the refined sweetener over the raw variety for March delivery, likely to be the most-active contract by the fourth quarter, was $86.1415 a tonne Wednesday.