Brazilian Raw Sugar Premium Seen Sliding on Weak Global Demand

(Businessweek) – Buyers of raw sugar from Brazil, the world’s largest producer, are paying a smaller premium for the sweetener as demand remains slow and harvesting in the main growing region accelerated, according to Swiss Sugar Brokers.

Raw sugar for loading in August at ports in the center south, the country’s main growing region, was offered for sale at a premium of 0.1 cent a pound to the price of the October contract on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, against no buyers, the Rolle, Switzerland-based broker said in a report e-mailed today. That compares with 0.1 cent to 0.15 cent on Aug. 5.

“Destination demand is almost put under sedation,” Naim Beydoun, a broker at the company, wrote in the report. “Nearby sellers are just increasing by the day.”

For loading in September, the raw sweetener is at the same price as on the exchange, with buyers looking to get a discount of 0.15 cent a pound, the report showed. On Aug. 5, cargoes for the same month were offered at a premium of 0.5 cent a pound, with buyers willing to get a discount of 0.1 cent a pound, the broker said in a report that day.

The amount of sugar waiting to be loaded at the main ports in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, fell 11 percent to 2.5 million tons in the week ended Aug. 8, according to data from shipping agency Williams Servicos Maritimos Ltda.

Sugar cane processing in Brazil’s center south rose 11 percent to 46.3 million tons in the second half of July, the second gain in a 15-day period this year, data from industry group Unica showed.

Raw sugar for October delivery slid 1.2 percent to 20.50 cents a pound by 1:35 p.m. in New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at Ialmeida3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at Ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.