BLBG: Sugar Futres Advance to Seven-Week High as Brazil Crop May Miss Estimates
Sugar rose to a seven-week high in New York on speculation that supplies will be limited from Brazil, the world’s biggest producer. Coffee also gained.
ICAP do Brasil said that the nation’s sugar-cane crop may fall short of an industry group’s estimate for a record harvest in the season that began in April. Unica, an industry association, said last week that output in Brazil’s Center South, the world’s largest producing region, slumped 17 percent in the first half of May.
“The estimates seem to be moving lower,” said Michael McDougall, a senior vice president at Newedge USA in New York. “Sugar has shown an ability to try for higher levels.”
Raw sugar for July delivery rose 0.37 cent, or 1.6 percent, to 23.89 cents a pound at 10:57 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the price touched 24.2 cents, the highest since April 15. The commodity is heading for a fourth straight weekly gain, which would be the longest rally since November.
In March, Unica estimated the sugar-cane harvest in the Center South would reach 568.5 million metric tons this season. The total probably won’t top 550 million tons, Marcos Mine, head of the sugar-ethanol desk at ICAP do Brasil, said from Sao Paulo this week.
Arabica-coffee futures for July delivery jumped 5.8 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $2.6705 a pound in New York. Before today, the commodity surged 93 percent in the past year.
In London, refined sugar and robusta coffee also advanced.
To contact the reporters on this story: Debarati Roy in New York at droy5@bloomberg.net; Isis Almeida in London at Ialmeida3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net