Brazil's coffee trade quiet, port bottleneck eases

Brasilia (november 21, 2010) : physical coffee prices in brazil were unchanged this week from last, according to rates compiled by the carvalhaes brokerage in the port town of santos, amid subdued trade in the world's top grower. a combination of volatile coffeefutures prices, linked to macroeconomic concerns outside brazil and a bank holiday on monday meant phones were quieter at local trading houses this week.
"this week it has been rather calm. there has been some business but nothing extraordinary," said john wolthers, trader at the comexim exporter based in the port town of santos from where most of the country's coffee is shipped. wolthers said a bottleneck growers had been facing at the crowded container terminals had begun to improve as exports of other agricultural crops slowed. some ships had been leaving before the cargo could be loaded.
"the bulk of the sugar and soy has gone now and it is a little more normal. it is not as problematic as before," he said. despite a quiet week, wolthers said he expected demand would pick up again and stay fairly strong. most sugar leaves brazil in bulk, poured straight into vessels holds, but loading capacity was stretched to the limit this year amid exceptionally high demand. so some sugar was also shipped in containers, putting pressure on the container terminals that handle coffee.
rio de janeiro-based brokerage flavour coffee said trade picked up on thursday as the climb in futures created better hedging opportunities for exporters. the december arabica contract in new york jumped 10.15 cents to $2.096 per lb during that session. the march contract rose 8.45 cents or 4.2 percent to settle at $2.1130 per lb.