Sugar at Eight-Week Highs as Truckers Strike in Brazil

(Reuters) – Sugar futures on ICE

extended gains to eight-week highs on Thursday, while coffee

prices rose modestly, buoyed in part by a truck drivers’ strike

in top grower Brazil that could reduce the flow of exports.

The New York and London softs markets will shut for public

holidays on Monday and reopen on Tuesday.

SUGAR

* July raw sugar       settled up 0.03 cent, or 0.2

percent, at 12.38 cents per lb after touching 12.62 cents, its

highest since March 26.

* Short-covering by speculators pushed prices higher,

traders said, after exchange data showed total open interest

fell for the second straight day on Tuesday. This came after it

reached an eight-year high at nearly 1.04 million contracts on

Monday.

* August white sugar         settled up $2, or 0.6 percent,

at $351.40 per tonne, after touching $356.30, the highest for

the front month since March 27.

* Brazilian truckers protesting high diesel prices for a

fourth day said they would maintain road blockades until

measures to reduce fuel taxes are enshrined in the official

gazette.

* “Part of the concern is the impact it is having on getting

goods, including sugar, into (and out of) the port by road,

which is likely to result in shipping delays,” said Agrilion

Commodity Advisers in a note.

* “However, arguably the more significant impact (from a

sugar perspective) is being felt at the mill level where a lack

of diesel fuel means farmers are unable to fuel the cane

harvesting machines or the trucks to then get the cane from the

fields to the mills for processing,” Agrilion said.

* The market shrugged off data from cane industry group

Unica that showed Brazilian mills crushed more than expected in

the first half of May.

COFFEE

* July arabica coffee      settled up 1.2 cents, or 1

percent, at $1.2055 per lb.

* Brazil’s top coffee exporter Cooxupé warned foreign

clients on Thursday about possible shipping delays due to the

truckers nationwide protests, according to a company executive.

* July robusta coffee         settled up $4, or 0.2 percent,

at $1,755 per tonne, after falling 2.2 percent in the previous

session.

COCOA

* July London cocoa         settled down 17 pounds, or 0.9

percent, at 1,865 pounds per tonne.

* ICE said it will withdraw the stock figure reports from

the past five days that “materially understated” London cocoa

stocks.

* July New York cocoa       settled down $15, or 0.6

percent, at $2,603 per tonne.