Wishing Everyone a Happpy Diwali and A Prosperous New Year

  • Trade has been very slow over the past week due to the Festival of Diwali and the Assembly Elections in Maharashtra.
  • Mills in Northern India will start their crushing operations in the next 10 days. Maharashtra & Karnataka will see a delayed start (2H Nov) due to the late rains in the region.
  • Exports of Low Quality Whites (LQW) have started, with the major destinations being Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and East Africa.
  • Sellers of Raw Sugar into Iran have not covered any more sugar since the last report as they are waiting for payment instruments to be arranged. The Coastal Refiners have started receiving old crop LQW’s and have covered up to 250 kMT.
  • The Ethanol Tender has seen fewer participants compared to last year owing to lack of visibility on cane availability in Maharashtra & Karnataka and consequently prices of ‘C’ Molasses. However, most of the participants have opted for supply of Ethanol through the ‘B-Heavy’ Molasses route.
  • Overall, offers are expected to be lower at about 1.75 bln litres during this first round compared to a total supply of 2.5 bln litres during 2018-19. Despite a lower volume of ethanol offered we expect more sucrose to be diverted to ethanol (about 1 to 1.2 mln MT compared to 0.400 mln MT sugar equivalent) due to the switch of feedstock from ‘C Molasses to ‘B-Heavy’ Molasses.

Yatin Wadhwana (Director, Gradient Commercial Pvt Ltd)

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