Raw sugar hits 7-month high, arabica sets 13-year peak: New York
Raw sugar futures on ICE reached a seven-month high, with October raw sugar rising 1.3% to 23.42 cents per lb due to Brazil’s historic drought and widespread fires impacting sugar production. December white sugar fell 0.5% to $592.60 a ton. Arabica coffee also hit a 13-year peak before settling at $2.691 per lb, driven by dry weather concerns in Brazil.
NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Raw sugar futures on ICE rose to a seven-month high on Wednesday while arabica coffee touched a 13-year peak before turning lower with both markets supported by concerns about dry weather in top producer Brazil.
SUGAR
* October raw sugar SBc1 settled up 0.3 cent, or 1.3%, at 23.42 cents per lb after earlier setting a seven-month high of 23.57 cents.
* The expectation that top sugar producer Brazil will enter one of the longest between-crops periods in decades, due to a historic drought and widespread farmland fires, has broken speculators’ months-long strategy to short the raws market.
* December white sugar LSUc1 fell 0.5% to$592.60 a metric ton.
* The inability to export to Ukraine’s key European Union market has led to a fall in domestic sugar prices and producers expect them to fall further, leading farm union UAC said on Wednesday.
COFFEE
* December arabica coffee KCc1 settled up 1.3 cent, or 0.5%, at $2.691 per lb, after earlier hitting a 13-year high of $2.7120.
* Dealers said dry weather in Brazil remained a major concern, reducing the potential for next year’s crop.
* “Coffee has greater issues than sugar as this is the time for flowering and there’s been no proper rains yet,” said Alberto Peixoto, director of consultancy AP Commodities.
* November robusta coffee LRCc1 rose 2.5% at $5,446 a ton.
COCOA
* December New York cocoa CCc1 settled up $88, or 1.1%, to $7,955 a ton.
* New York cocoa may break resistance at $7,929 a ton, and rise into the $8,032 to $8,096 range, said Reuters technical analystWang Tao.
* Dealers said, however, that favourable weather in top grower Ivory Coast was improving the main crop outlook and could help tokeep a lid on prices.
* March London cocoa LCCc2 rose 0.2% to 4,534 pounds per ton.
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