Lower Prices Spur Demand for Brazilian Raw Sugar

(Bloomberg) – Lower prices for raw sugar in New York have spurred demand for the sweetener in top producer Brazil, with more than three cargoes being sold for shipment between this month and Dec. 15, Swiss Sugar Brokers said.

Raw sugar futures fell 11 percent over the past month on speculation supplies would ease with the start of the harvest in the Northern Hemisphere last month. Sugar supplies are set to outpace demand by 4.4 million metric tons in 2011-12, up from 840,000 tons last season, Societe Generale SA (GLE) estimates.

Buying has emerged since the price neared the 24 cents level, Naim Beydoun, a broker at the Rolle, Switzerland-based brokerage wrote in a report e-mailed yesterday.

Sugar for loading in November and December at ports in the Center South and in the Northeast regions was at a premium of 0.65 cent a pound above the price of the March contract on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, data from Swiss Sugar Brokers show. That compares with a premium of 0.75 cent a pound on Nov. 16, it said in a report that day. Center South is Brazil’s main producing region.

Futures prices and the premium for physical sugar are “almost bottoming,” Beydoun said.

White, or refined, sugar for March delivery rose 0.6 percent to $628.60 a ton by 12:48 p.m. on NYSE Liffe in London. Raw sugar for March delivery was little changed at 24.16 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. 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: John Deane at jdeane3@bloomberg.net