Sugar falls as whites hit contract low ahead of expiry

LONDON: Raw sugar prices hit their lowest in six weeks on Monday as the potential for a large delivery ahead of the August white sugar contract expiry on Tuesday weighed on the complex.

SUGAR

* August white sugar was down $9.80, or 3.2%, at a contract low of $295.60 a tonne at 1416 GMT.

* There remained 18,305 lots of open interest in the contract as of Friday, with possible delivery origins expected to include Guatemala, Mexico and Thailand.

* The August contract's discount to October <LSUQ9-V9> deepened to $19.30 from $16.40 on Monday as traders rolled out of their positions.

* "The (spread) activity tends to 'lean' the moribund market to the downside. We seem likely to test 12 cents support (in raw sugar)," said Thomas Kujawa, co-head of softs commodities at Sucden Financial.

* October raw sugar was down 0.30 cents, or 2.3%, at 12.02 cents per lb, having touched a six week low of 11.95. The contract fell 0.5% last week.

* "With London's front month remaining so weak there is little reason for raws to improve in the short term. The weight of available sugar stocks continues to pressurise prices exacerbated by poor demand," a dealer said.

* Limiting losses in sugar, the sowing of summer crops in top producer India is down 9% since the start of the season.

* But on the downside, India plans to keep its sugar export subsidies despite complaints to the World Trade Organization, four sources told Reuters.

COFFEE

* September arabica coffee was down 1.1 cents, or 1%, at $1.0560 per lb. The contract lost nearly 3.9% last week.

* Dealers continue to closely follow temperatures in top producer Brazil.

* While forecasts for the coming 6-10 days feature cool temperatures across southern Brazil, "the frost threat remains low at this time," weather forecaster Radiant Solutions said in a note last week.

* "The weather premium has eroded and more importantly we're seeing short positions amongst commercials increase, so there's no reason we couldn't push a bit lower. I'd be comfortable with a neutral to slightly bearish view over the coming weeks," said JPMorgan analyst Tracey Allen.

* September robusta coffee was down $27, or 1.9%, at $1,397 a tonne.

COCOA

* September London cocoa fell 44 pounds, or 2.4%, to 1,827 pounds a tonne.

* September New York cocoa was down $65, or 2.6%, at $2,438 a tonne. The contract rose 1.4% last week.

* Dealers were anticipating the release of data on second-quarter grindings, an indicator of demand, with European figures due on Tuesday and North American data on Thursday.