LONDON: Raw sugar prices hit a one-week low on Monday as the premium for white versus raws collapsed, indicating weak demand from end-use sectors.
SUGAR
* May raw sugar fell 0.02 cent, or 0.2 percent, to 12.55 cents per lb at 1355 GMT.
* The contract shed 1.6 percent last month and has traded at between 12 and 13 cents for the most of 2019.
* May white sugar was up $1.9, or 0.6 percent, at $327 per tonne, having hit its lowest since Oct 1 at $320.70.
* The premium for May white sugar over May raws fell sharply last month to around $50 a tonne from about $65 a month earlier. The low premium was seen curbing refineries' demand for raws.
* "This drop started with whites, now we (will) see raws follow. Refineries need a whites premium of over 70 or 80 (dollars)," said Claudiu Covrig, analyst at S&P Global Platts.
* Limiting losses in sugar, the Brazilian real rose versus the dollar, discouraging producer selling of dollar-priced sugar.
* Speculators increased their net short position in raw sugar futures on ICE by 6,144 contracts to 129,328 in the week to March 26.
* Egypt's state buyer the Sugar and Integrated Industries Company ESIIC is seeking 50,000 tonnes of raw cane sugar in a tender.
* French sugar group Tereos will pay sugar beet farmers in more instalments this season than previously as it struggles with a market slump that it expects will lead to a full-year loss.
COFFEE
* May arabica coffee fell 0.65 cent, or 0.69 percent, to 93.85 cents per lb.
* The monthly contract shed 4.1 percent in March, after falling 9.7 percent in February, weighed by excess supplies.
* "The market is oversold and should correct upwards in the short term," said broker Marex Spectron, citing a currency impact analysis.
* May robusta coffee was down $3, or 0.21 percent, at $1,453 per tonne.
* Indonesia's exports of Sumatra robusta coffee beans in March rose 6 percent to 6,563.4 tonnes from the same period last year.
COCOA
* London May cocoa rose 16 pounds, or 0.93 percent, to 1,744 pounds per tonne, while May New York cocoa rose $36, or 1.6 percent, to $2,316 per tonne.
* The New York contract gained 1.5 percent last month, its second straight month of gains.
* Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 1.697 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and March 31, exporters estimated, up about 13 percent year on year.
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