Asia Sugar-premiums steady in muted trade, Thailand to step up exports

FE Team | Published: February 02, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (Reuters): Thai raw sugar premiums held steady after a week of almost flat trade but dealers anticipate some surge in deals as Bangkok will try to sell the bulk of its exportable surplus in the first half of this year.
"January has been extraordinarily quiet but we believe Thailand will not prefer to wait until the tail end of the year to export sugar. Rather, Thai mills will soon try to sell as much as they can," said a dealer by telephone from Singapore.
Thailand, the world's biggest sugar exporter after Brazil, will have a sizeable surplus to export, the dealer said.
"Thai sugar was selling at discounts until a few months ago because higher stocks forced millers to sell as much as possible. That was a disaster. Now Thailand will prefer to sell sooner rather than later," the dealer said.
Thai raw sugar prices, that had returned to discounts in August 2014 after a gap of five years, switched to premiums in early December.
The widely-traded high polarisation, or hipol raws, are now being offered at 60 points above New York futures for spot delivery, unchanged from the previous week.
On Wednesday, benchmark March New York raw sugar futures closed unchanged at 15.16 cents a lb, dealing from 14.97 cents to 15.34 cents.
Premium for J-spec, the low-quality Thai raws favoured by Japanese buyers were, was quoted at 50 points above New York's March contract against 45 points last week.
Thai white sugar premiums were at $20 a tonne to London futures, unchanged from the previous week.
March white sugar on Wednesday ended down $2.10, or 0.5 per cent, at $391.90 a tonne.
Separately, dealers are still waiting for a decision on raw sugar export incentives by India.
Government sources earlier this month said India's cabinet could soon approve an increase in the raw sugar subsidy paid to mills to about 4,000 rupees ($64) per tonne as it looks to cut large stockpiles.