132 words / less than a minute reading time
- White sugar prices have increased again, after falling to an eight month low of $307/mt last week.
- White sugar prices had been hit by the weakness in the raw sugar market, which traded below 10c/lb at the start of April.
- However, while the raw sugar market is oversupplied in 2020, the white sugar market remains tight.
- This follows a poor cane crop in Thailand, which is usually one of the world’s largest and lowest cost refined sugar suppliers.
- As a result, refined sugar is relatively scarce and is being supplied by higher-cost toll refiners.
- An unknown factor for the white sugar market at this stage is the extent to which sugar consumption is being hit by coronavirus lockdowns.
- We suspect global sugar consumption will fall year-on-year in 2020; the first time this has happened since 1980.
