LONDON Jan 3 (Reuters) - ICE sugar rose, along with other financial markets, supported by a softer dollar in early trading on Tuesday, while arabica coffee eased and cocoa rose, with potential upside limited by ample African supplies.
SUGAR
* ICE benchmark raw sugar futures edged up 0.16 cent to 23.46 cents a lb early on the first trading day of 2012, below a three-week peak of 24.0 cents per lb touched on Dec. 28.
* Gains were limited by big crops in the EU, Russia, Ukraine, India and Thailand.
* Raw sugar tumbled 27.5 percent in 2011, having reached a 30-year high at 36.08 cents a lb on Feb. 2, 2011.
* Some dealers see prices slipping to test 20 cents a lb in the first quarter of 2012 due to an expected global surplus of the sweetener. They estimate costs of production in top grower Brazil at 18-22 cents a lb.
* New York sugar is sandwiched in a range of 22.81-23.60 cents, and an escape from the range is needed to indicate its next direction, according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.
* Sugar output from India's Maharashtra state, top producer of the sweetener in the country, was 18.8 percent higher on the year in the first three months of the 2011/12 crushing season that started on Oct. 1, an industry official said.
* London March white sugar futures were up $7.70 or 1.3 percent to $609.70 per tonne.
COFFEE
* ICE May arabica futures were down 0.35 cent or 0.15 percent to $2.2930 per lb at 0927 GMT in thin volumes.
* ICE arabica futures basis the front month finished 2011 down 5.7 percent after a weak performance in the second half of the year.
* Coffee's fundamentals are bullish early in 2012 due to weather-related problems in major producer Colombia, which have led to reduced crop forecasts in the world's top grower of washed arabica beans, dealers said.
* Analysts say buyers seem to be more willing to use Brazilian arabicas and robustas in blends, because of the limited availability of high quality Colombian coffee.
* Scond-position ICE arabica futures contracts were still above a one-year low of $2.1235 per lb on Dec. 19, when they were pressured by concerns over the euro zone crisis and worries over the global economic outlook.
* New York coffee is expected to rise to $2.3450 per lb as it rides on an upward wave "C", according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.
* London March robusta coffee futures were up $3 or 0.2 percent to $1,813 per tonne, trading above a two-week low of $1,792 per tonne, basis second month, touched on Dec. 28, pressured by a big harvest in top producer Vietnam.
COCOA
* ICE May cocoa futures were up $21 or 1 percent to $2,152 in thin turnover, with potential upside in prices capped by plentiful African supplies.
* London March cocoa was up 22 pounds or 1.6 percent to 1,402 pounds per tonne.
* The U.S. cocoa market, basis front month, closed 2011 down 30.5 percent, the spot contract's biggest annual drop in 12 years.
* Cocoa was one of the worst performers on the CRB index , pressured by abundant West African supplies.
* New York cocoa will rise to $2,266 per tonne, as it has completed a correction that started from the Dec. 14, 2011 high of $2,274, according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.
OTHER MARKETS
* Better-than-expected data from China's giant manufacturing sector boosted global stocks and the euro on Tuesday and pushed safe-haven bets including German bonds lower. (Reporting by David Brough; Editing by Jane Baird)
