WILLIAMS  SA

July 2011 Brazilian Shipments

According Williams SA, Brazil shipped a total of 2,829,675 tonnes of sugar (2,661,581 raws/168,094 whites) in July from both the center-south and the north-east. This compares with 2.698 million tonnes shipped in June 2011 and 2.419 million tonnes shipped in July 2010.

Center-South

Center-south shipments in the month totaled 2,798,766 tonnes, of which, 2,630,672 tonnes was raw sugar and 168,094 tonnes was white sugar.  The compares with 2.681 million tonnes shipped last month (2.516 million tonnes of raws and 165,230 tonnes of whites) and 2.362 million tonnes in July 2010 (2.185 million tonnes of raws and 177,300 tonnes of whites).

The major destinations for the raw sugar exports were as follows:

·         Black Sea: 118,280 tonnes (1,010,063 tonnes this crop [2.953 million last yr])

·         Algeria: 155,351 tonnes (554,591 tonnes this crop [650,952 million last yr.])

·         UAE: 203,763 tonnes (630,562 tonnes this crop [1.511 million last yr.])

·         Malaysia: 115,660 tonnes (337,310 tonnes this crop [1.266 million last yr.])

·         Bangladesh: 163,984 tonnes (388,524 tonnes this crop [650,952 tonnes last yr.])

·         Indonesia: 169,988 tonnes (186,328 tonnes this crop [923,255 tonnes last yr.])

·         Egypt: 203,763 tonnes (250,183 tonnes this crop [993,255 tonnes last yr.])

·         China: 695,093 tonnes (818,463 tonnes this crop [1.165 million tonnes last yr.])

The biggest receiver in July was clearly China. The Chinese will continue to take sugar this month, but then slow or stop as they require the raw sugar to arrive in China to be available as white sugar prior to their own crop in December. The toll refiners, such as UAE, Algeria and Egypt, continue to be consistent receivers due to their low sugar stocks as the backwardation structure of the market has meant they work on a hand-to-month basis. The Algerian and Egyptian deliveries may have been boosted by sugar moved from these two countries into Libya as traders are nervous to ship to a war torn country. The same could apply to Syria, who only took 26,460 tonnes in the month. Far Eastern destinations, namely Bangladesh, Indonesia and also Iran, who took 97,760 tonnes, continue to take Brazilian sugar due to the higher quality despite the greater availability of Thai sugar. The deliveries have slowed down dramatically to the Black Sea as their new beet crop becomes available. The Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will continue to be out of the Brazilian raw market for some while. It is interesting to note that 34,689 tonnes was shipped to Bulgaria and 27,500 tonnes to Georgia. In other deliveries 40,000 tonnes went to Taiwan, 25,000 tonnes to the USA and 23,999 tonnes to Dominican Republic, who bought raw sugar to fill additional US quota.  

This brings total shipments from this crop (May-July) to 7,062,810 tonnes of which 6,714,986 tonnes is raw sugar and 347,824 tonnes is white. This compares with 6,693,958 tonnes shipped in the same period last year (6.344 million tonnes raws/349,926 tonnes whites). Therefore, the Brazilians are 368,852 tonnes (all raws) ahead in exports this year. The latest Unica report tallies Brazilian production to August1^st 2.0 million tonnes lower than last year. Therefore, the country’s stocks are much lower than normal at this stage in the crop.  

North-East

North-east shipments in July totaled 30,909 tonnes of raws with 22,956 tonnes was shipped to the USA. This compares with 10,026 tonnes of raws shipped in June and 56,878 tonnes shipped in July 2010. This brings total shipments from this September/July crop to 2,507,955 tonnes compared with 2,882,080 tonnes shipped last crop.