BLBG: Sugar Climbs to Two-Week High in London as Crop Damage May Curb Supplies
White sugar rose to a two-week high in London on speculation crop damage will reduce supplies.
Thailand’s sugar production for 2010-11 may be 10 percent to 15 percent smaller than a year earlier because of dry weather in June, Rabobank International said in a report. In Brazil, the world’s largest producer of sugar, flooding in the Northeast may damage up to 10 percent of the region’s crop, Rabobank analyst Andy Duff in Sao Paulo wrote in the report.
Expectations on yields from Brazil are low and “the weather at the moment is not so great with drought in parts of Asia, and flash floods in China,” said Jake Wetherall, a trader with Rabobank in London.
White, or refined, sugar for October delivery advanced as much as 2.7 percent to $505 a metric ton on the Liffe exchange in London, the highest price since June 18. The sweetener traded at $504 a ton at 10:07 a.m. local time. Raw sugar trading on ICE Futures U.S. in New York is closed for Independence Day.
Cocoa for September delivery rose 21 pounds, or 0.9 percent, to 2,399 pounds ($3,633) a ton and robusta beans for September delivery slid $25, or 1.4 percent, to $1,725 a ton.
To contact the reporter on this story: M. Shankar in London at mshankar@bloomberg.net.
