More pain for Brazil’s sugar industry in 2015

Leslie Josephs – The Wall Street Journal, 12/18/2014

Brazil’s shrinking sugar industry has little to look forward to next year.

Weak sugar prices, high debt levels and tumbling revenue have plunged the country’s industry into “the biggest crisis in its history,” said the Brazilian Sugar Cane Industry Association, or Unica.

Those pressures could lead to even lower production within the world’s biggest sugar producer’s industry next year, as cash-strapped producers cut back on plantings of cane or close altogether.

Read more…

Sugar output may frop 6 pct after frost, rain

Reuters, 08/07/2013

Sugar and ethanol output from Brazil’s biggest sugar and ethanol group Raizen Energia, a joint venture between Cosan SA and Royal-Dutch Shell , could fall 6 percent due to recent frost and rains, a local newspaper said.

Pedro Mizutani, Raizen Energia’s chief financial officer, said in the Brazilian financial paper Valor Economico’s online edition late on Tuesday that two days of frost would reduce crushing at one of its mills in Mato Grosso do Sul state by 100,000 tonnes to 2.05 million tonnes, for example.

“The most damaging effect of the frost will occur next year but it’s still too early to quantify this effect,” Mizutani said.

Read more…

Coffee rises on threat of frost damage in Brazil; sugar advances

Marley DelDuchetto Kayden – Bloomberg, 07/22/2013

Coffee futures gained on new forecasts for cold weather that may bring frost damage to crops in Brazil, the world’s largest producer. Sugar and orange juice also advanced, while cotton and cocoa declined.

Temperatures will drop below freezing tomorrow and July 24, posing a significant threat to the southern fringes of Brazil’s coffee-growing areas, Donald Keeney, a meteorologist for MDA Information Systems in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said in a telephone interview. Lows may reach minus 3 degrees Celsius (19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in southern Parana tomorrow. Damage to Brazil’s coffee tress would help reduce a global glut that helped send prices down 15 percent this year through last week.

“We have some buying on the idea of a frost threat,” Sterling Smith, a futures specialist at Citigroup Inc. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “It looks like only the minor growing areas are going to experience any real cold, but we will still see speculative buying until tomorrow, when people are more confident the major growing regions are safe.”

Read more…

Sugar climbs to one-week high on Brazil real, rain; cocoa rises

Isis Almeida – Bloomberg, 07/18/2013

Sugar gained to a one-week high in New York as Brazil’s real advanced and rain in the country’s main growing region is set to disrupt harvesting. Cocoa rose.

A cold front will bring rain to some sugar-cane producing regions of Brazil, potentially disrupting the harvest, weather forecaster Somar Meteorologia said on July 15. Brazil’s real climbed the most among emerging-market currencies after the Mexican peso yesterday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke damped speculation that the U.S. central bank will curtail stimulus. A stronger real reduces incentives for millers to sell the sweetener priced in U.S. dollars.

Rains in the center south are reducing the crop’s potential to yield sugar, according to researcher Datagro Ltd. The region will produce no more than 34.1 million metric tons of sugar in the 2013-14 season that started in April, according to industry group Unica. That’s down from a previous forecast of 35.5 million tons. Millers are using more cane to make ethanol, Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, Unica’s technical director, said on July 16.

Read more…

Brazil Sugar Ships Scheduled to Sail to India, Nigeria, Algeria

Isis Almeida – Bloomberg Businessweek, 11/15/2012

About 31 percent of all the sugar waiting to be loaded onto ships in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, is headed to India, Nigeria and Algeria, according to shipping agency Williams Servicos Maritimos Ltda.

Vessels scheduled to go to Nigeria will take 142,900 metric tons of sugar and another 103,728 tons are headed to Algeria, data from the Recife, Brazil-based agency known as Williams Brasil, e-mailed yesterday showed. Ships carrying 152,303 tons were scheduled to sail from Brazil’s main ports to India, the world’s second-biggest producer and largest consumer.

Nigeria will import 1.45 million tons of sugar in 2012-13, unchanged from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Shipments into Algeria will total 2.15 million tons, up from 1.8 million tons in 2011-12, the data showed. Both countries have sugar refiners. India is among the countries that are importing more sweetener than initially forecast, according to Lausanne, Switzerland-based researcher Kingsman SA.

Read more…

Brazil’s Raw Sugar Discount Narrows as Producers Pull Out Offers

Isis Almeida – Bloomberg, 11/05/2012

Sellers of raw sugar from Brazil, the world’s largest producer, are putting their sweetener up for sale at a smaller discount as producers pull out offers from the market, according to Swiss Sugar Brokers.

Raw sugar for loading this month at the port of Santos was at a discount of 0.65 cent to 0.75 cent a pound to the price of the March contract on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, the broker said in a report e-mailed yesterday. That compares with 0.75 cent to 0.85 cent a pound a week earlier, data from the Rolle, Switzerland-based company showed. For December loading, the sweetener was offered at a discount of 0.55 cent compared with 0.65 cent a pound the previous week, the report showed.

“Most of the last week’s offers for the nearby as well for the forward have been taken out from the market, symptomatic of less interest from sellers to trade at deep discount for the nearby,” said Naim Beydoun, a broker at the company.

Read more…

Brazil Sugar Premium Rises as Sellers Deliver to Far East

Isis Almeida – Bloomberg News, 06/06/2012

The premium buyers have to pay to obtain raw sugar from Brazil, the world’s largest producer, is rising as sellers to the Far East deliver the sweetener from the South American country, according to Swiss Sugar Brokers.

Raw sugar for June loading at the port of Santos was at a premium of 0.15 cent to 0.2 cent a pound to the price of the July contract on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange in New York on June 3, the broker said in an e-mailed report. That compares with a premium of 0.12 cent a pound on May 27.

Raw sugar from Thailand for June loading was at a premium of 1.8 cents to 2.5 cents a pound (or 250 points) to the exchange price on June 3, according to the broker. Thailand is the world’s second-biggest sugar exporter.

Read more…

Brazil sugar premium rises as sellers deliver to Far East

Isis Almeida – Bloomberg Businessweek, 06/06/2012

The premium buyers have to pay to obtain raw sugar from Brazil, the world’s largest producer, is rising as sellers to the Far East deliver the sweetener from the South American country, according to Swiss Sugar Brokers.

Raw sugar for June loading at the port of Santos was at a premium of 0.15 cent to 0.2 cent a pound to the price of the July contract on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange in New York on June 3, the broker said in an e-mailed report. That compares with a premium of 0.12 cent a pound on May 27.

Raw sugar from Thailand for June loading was at a premium of 1.8 cents to 2.5 cents a pound (or 250 points) to the exchange price on June 3, according to the broker. Thailand is the world’s second-biggest sugar exporter.

Read more…

Brazil sets up $38 billion ethanol subsidy program to stimulate expansion

Isabel Lane – Biofuels Digest,02/27/2012

In Brazil, the Brazilian government announced a program giving $38 billion in subsidized credit to the ethanol sector. The program is expected to increase sugar production and milling industries while ultimately doubling the annual turnover of the ethanol industry. In light of Brazil’s $48 billion dollar sugar and ethanol industry, the program is also expected to increase exports into the world market.

Piper Jaffray analysts Michael Cox and Mike Ritzenthaler write: “Incremental positive for BG & AMRS, negative for GPRE & ANDE. We believe the Brazilian subsidy program should be a positive for Bunge, which has struggled to live up to expectations within its Brazilian sugarcane business. Bunge replanted ~27% of its acreage (& contracted acreage) this season in an effort to bolster feedstock output, and has announced intentions to do the same next season.

“For Amyris and other Brazil-focused bioindustrials, the expanded planting may reduce feedstock costs, though with limited end markets and commercial traction, the benefit of cheaper sugar may not make a meaningful difference for the stocks. For U.S. ethanol producers, like GPRE and ANDE, the negative implication is ~18-24 months away.”

Read more…