LONDON: Raw sugar and arabica coffee futures consolidated on Monday just below last week's multi-month highs, while New York cocoa drifted back towards a three-month low set in the previous session.
SUGAR
July raw sugar was unchanged at 12.52 cents per lb at 1052 GMT. The front month rose to a peak of 12.97 cents on Friday, its highest since March 9.
Dealers said the market may be set for a period of consolidation following a bout of fund short covering against the backdrop of a protest by truckers in Brazil which disrupted both the harvest and exports.
The protests are now over but at their height, hundreds of sugar mills in Brazil's centre-south region, the world's largest sugar cane belt, were shut. Mills also reported problems shipping sugar to ports because of roadblocks.
Dry weather in Brazil, however, remains a concern.
"Most estimates of the final sugar production number (in centre-south Brazil) are still falling due to probable negative consequences of the drought, and to the expectation that less cane will enable mills to swing the sugar mixed even lower," Marex Spectron said in a report on Monday.
Brazil exported 1.81 million tonnes of raw sugar in May, down from 1.99 million in the same month last year, according to data published by the country's trade ministry.
Speculators cut their bearish positions in raw sugar and arabica coffee contracts on ICE Futures US in the week to May 29, US government data showed on Friday.
August white sugar fell $0.60, or 0.2 percent, to $352.40 a tonne.
COFFEE
July arabica coffee was up 0.25 cent, or 0.2 percent, at $1.23 per lb. The front month rose to a peak of $1.2495 on Friday, its highest since Jan. 30.
Dealers said the market had been buoyed last week by disruptions to the flow of exports from Brazil linked to the truckers' strike but activity should now return to normal.
Brazil exported 1.41 million 60-kg bags of coffee in May, down from 2.30 million in the same month last year, according to data published by the country's trade ministry.
July robusta coffee fell $2, or 0.1 percent, to $1,748 a tonne.
COCOA
July New York cocoa fell $18, or 0.7 percent, to$2,440 a tonne, drifting down towards Friday's three-month low of $2,413.
Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 1.713 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and June 3, exporters estimated on Monday, down about 4 percent from 1.753 million tonnes in the same period last season.
July London cocoa was down 12 pounds, or 0.7 percent, at 1,748 pounds a tonne.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.