Sugar Climbs to a Four-Month High on Worsening Delays at Brazilian Ports

Sugar rose, extending a rally to a four-month high, on worsening delays at ports in Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter.

A record 115 vessels were waiting to load 3.53 million metric tons of sugar at Brazil’s six main ports on July 27, according to consultant Santos Associados Consultoria Ltda. and shipping company Unimar Agenciamentos Maritimos Ltda. Loading may be delayed further because of a week of rainfall starting Aug. 1, Celso Oliveira, a meteorologist for Somar Meteorologia, said yesterday.

“Supplies from Brazil are moving at a much slower pace, despite a good harvest,” Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, an analyst with Barclays Capital in London, said today by telephone. “Near-term fundamentals remain constructive for sugar,” she said, adding that world inventories are still “thin.”

Raw sugar for October delivery gained 0.63 cent, or 3.3 percent, to close at 19.5 cents a pound at 2 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the price reached 19.67 cents, the highest level for a most-active contract since March 15.

Raw sugar has surged 50 percent since reaching a 13-month low of 13 cents on May 7, as demand rose from Asia.

“With the Philippines tendering tomorrow for 100,000 tons of raw sugar and Pakistan looking for 200,000 tons of white sugar, the market might have a tough time pulling back,” Michael McDougall, a senior vice president at Newedge USA, a broker in New York, said today in a report.

On London’s Liffe exchange, refined sugar for October delivery jumped $6.80, or 1.2 percent, to close at $577.30 a metric ton at 5:30 p.m. local time, after reaching $581, the highest level since March 9.

To contact the reporters on this story: M. Shankar in London at mshankar@bloomberg.net; Yi Tian in New York at ytian8@bloomberg.net.

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