• IKAR in Mass Media

 

 → IKAR in Mass Media → #377

IKAR in Mass Media

Russia to refine 4.3 mln T sugar - analyst

08 сентября 2011 года

MOSCOW, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Russia will refine around 4.3 million tonnes of sugar from beets this year, a record volume but still far from what could be expected from this year's big crop due to limited storage and processing facilities, a Russian analyst said on Wednesday.

German analyst F.O. Licht said last week that Russia's beet sugar output was likely to nearly double to 5.8 million tonnes in 2011/12 from last year's 3.0 million tonnes, meaning it will be nearly self-sufficient on its beet sugar supply.

Trade house Czarnikow this week forecast that Russia would have a "fantastic crop" but gave no figures.

"The limit of our refineries' capacity is 4.3 million tonnes," Yevgeny Ivanov from the Institute of Agricultural Market Studies told Reuters.

"And, unfortunately, we have thaws. A thaw from, say, minus 10 degrees (Centigrade, 14 degrees Fahrenheit) to plus 5 degrees in December or January will transform all non-processed beet into mash."

He said that Russia could process just a little more sugar from beets only if there are no thaws, due to limitations on its storage and processing facilities.

Expectations of an almost doubling in Russian beet sugar output, as well as a bumper Ukrainian crop and big EU harvests, have weighed on futures prices, although downward revisions in analysts' Brazil output forecasts have underpinned the market.

Russia increased sugar beet sowings area for this season's crop to 1.3 million hectares from 1.1 million a year ago, when a severe drought cut beet sugar output to 2.74 million tonnes.

The latest sugar beet test showed an increase in root weight and in plantings' density and a decline in the sugar content in roots.

Russia refines over a half the sugar it consumes from domestic beets and most of the remainder from raw cane sugar, imported chiefly from Brazil.

It set a previous record in the 2008/09 season, when it produced 3.5 million tonnes of beet sugar.

SMALL 2011 IMPORTS, EXPORTS RESTART

Ivanov said that he expected very small imports of sugar to Russia until the end of the year, after Russia raised its import tariff on raw sugar to $85 per tonne in July from $50 and to $140 per tonne from August when the domestic sugar refining season started.

He said Russia imported 2.5 million tonnes of raw sugar between October 2010 and July 2011, up from 2.18 million in the same period a year ago.

Ivanov said that low domestic sugar prices prompted a restart of white sugar exports from Russia in April this year mainly to Central Asia and Afghanistan for the first time since January 2001.

"Exports restarted in April mainly to Kazakhstan, and in May-June to other Central Asian states, Afghanistan and a little to the Caucasus," the analyst said.

He said that Russia normally exports 10,000-15,000 tonnes of white sugar a month.

"But after the August decline of prices, which continues until now, our neighbours may prefer buying sugar from Russia to imports from other countries, as it (Russian sugar) will be the cheapest," Ivanov said.

"For logistical reasons we will not be able to ship much sugar to other regions, but small quantities of our sugar may reach northern Africa and even the European Union and China."

Under the pressure of new abundant sugar beet crop, white sugar prices fell to $758 per tonne from $779, IKAR said on Monday.

The Russian Sugar Producers' Union the industry lobby said on its web site (www.rossahar.ru) that by Sept. 6 59 out of Russia's 79 sugar refineries were processing beets, having refined 413,000 tonnes of white sugar, up from 264,000 a year ago.

Source: Reuters  |  #sugar   |  Comments: 0   Views: 77

There are no comments yet. Be the first!

Only authorized users can comment.