Output in the state of Maharashtra, India’s largest producer of refined sugar, dropped 29 percent from Oct. 1 to Nov. 20 from a year earlier as heavy rains slowed the harvest, an industry group said yesterday. Brazil is the leading producer. Sugar prices have more than doubled from this year’s low in May, partly on concern that a drought in Brazil damaged crops.
Sugar is “running on its own fundamentals,” said Richard Ilczyszyn, a market strategist at Lind-Waldock, a broker in Chicago. “People are trying to stay long.”
Raw sugar for March delivery gained 0.83 cent, or 3.1 percent, to settle at 27.33 cents a pound at 2 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Yesterday, the price gained 1.3 percent. On May 7, the sweetener touched 13 cents, the 2010 low.
Earlier, sugar tumbled as much as 4 percent. Most commodities dropped amid concern that Europe’s debt woes and escalating tensions between North and South Korea would impair the global economy, eroding demand for raw materials.
Europe and Korea spurred “a sprint to safe assets, like bonds, the dollar, the Swiss Franc and gold,” Michael McDougall, a vice president at Newedge USA in New York, said in a report.
In London, refined-sugar futures for March delivery rose $7.30, or 1.1 percent, to settle at $681 a ton on NYSE Liffe.
In New York, arabica-coffee futures for March delivery advanced 3.4 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $2.1055 a pound. The price has climbed 55 percent this year.
Robusta-coffee futures for January delivery rose $5, or 0.3 percent, to $1,853 a ton in London.
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