White sugar hits highest in nearly four years, raws gain

LONDON: White sugar futures on ICE hit their highest in nearly four years, boosted by talk of strong physical demand and by supply tightness linked to shipping container shortages. Raw sugar also gained.

SUGAR

March white sugar rose 0.4% to $466.50 a tonne at 1257 GMT, having hit its highest since April 2017 at $470.40.

March raw sugar rose 0.1% to 16.17 cents per lb, having hit its highest in 1-1/2 weeks.

Dealers cited lots of chatter about strong spot demand in physical markets and limited producer selling, with a lack of shipping container availability affecting white sugar flows.

They also said trade houses were gearing up to take delivery of both raws and whites.

The supply tightness in sugar can be seen in the widening premium for March versus May futures in both raws and whites.

Limiting sugar's upside longer term, Indian mills produced 17.7 million tonnes of sugar in the first four months of the 2020/21 season, up a quarter from a year earlier, a leading trade body said.

COFFEE

March arabica coffee fell 0.3% to $1.25 per lb.

Arabica coffee prices will end this year nearly 8% above current levels as the market moves to price in a deficit next season after working off the current surplus, a Reuters poll of 11 traders and analysts showed.

Costa Rica's coffee exports fell 37% in January, national coffee institute ICAFE data showed, interrupting a seven-month streak of increases.

March robusta coffee fell 0.6% to $1,328 a tonne.

COCOA

March New York cocoa rose 0.9% to $2,570 a tonne.

Dealers said there remain concerns about excess cocoa availability in top grower Ivory Coast, though the market has had some bullish surprises recently in terms of better than expected demand signals.

March London cocoa rose 0.6% to 1,750 pounds per tonne.