Insight Focus
Raw sugar futures strengthened in the past week. But commitment of traders data shows limited change in futures holdings. Speculators remain short.
New York No.11 Raw Sugar Futures
The raw sugar futures market strengthened last week, hitting 19c/lb by Friday’s close.
End-users have opened a small number of positions. They are extremely well hedged at the moment, and added 2.6k lots of long positions. Producers have closed out 1.5k lots of short positions.
Speculators have continued to add to their short positions over the past week, adding 2k lots of new shorts. Speculators have also opened 1.8k lots of long positions, but the net spec position remains at -81k lots.
The back of the No.11 futures curve weakened slightly over the past week but remains flat across the board.
London No.5 Refined Sugar Futures
The No.5 refined sugar futures traded higher in the past week, closing at 553.3USD/mt on Friday.
Speculators opened a small number of positions last week, adding 2k lots of longs. This has brought the net spec position up to 17.1k lots.
No.5 Open Interest
The refined sugar futures curve has strengthened slightly over the past week but remains in backwardation through to Dec’24.
White Premium (Arbitrage)
The Q/N white premium has traded lower over the past week, closing at 134.4USD/mt on Friday.
Many re-exports refiners need around 105-115USD/mt above the No.11 to profitably produce refined sugar. The current white premium is well above this level, which means we should theoretically see a pick-up in demand soon.
For a more detailed view of the sugar futures and market data, please refer to the appendix below.
No.11 (Raw Sugar) Appendix
No.11 Spreads
No.5 (White Sugar) Appendix
No.5 Spreads
White Premium Appendix
