By Isis Almeida - Jun 14, 2012
Bloomberg
The amount of sugar waiting to be loaded onto ships at the port of Santos in Brazil rose over the past week as traders favored the country’s biggest port over second-ranking Paranagua because of freight costs.
Vessels in Santos were waiting to load as much as 1.7 million metric tons of sugar yesterday, 1 percent more than a week earlier, e-mailed data from shipping agency Williams Servicos Maritimos Ltda. showed. In Paranagua, the amount of sugar fell 8.4 percent in the period to 445,935 tons.
Traders shipping sweetener to China benefit from lower freight costs at Santos, according to broker Kingsman SA. Shipping from Brazil’s biggest port can be as much as $4 to $5 a ton cheaper than exporting from Paranagua, as Brazil boosts exports to Asian countries including China and ships less to traditional buyer Russia, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based company said in a report on June 12.
About 18 percent, or 300,250 tons, of all the sugar waiting to be loaded at Santos will be shipped to China, according to Williams Brasil. There were no vessels scheduled to sail to the Asian nation from Paranagua, the data showed.
China’s sugar imports will climb by 1 million tons to 3.1 million tons in the current 2011-12 season, according to the International Sugar Organization in London. Russia’s imports will fall to 600,000 tons in the same period, down from 2.5 million tons a year earlier, the Moscow-based Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, or Ikar, estimates.
The amount of sugar waiting to be loaded in all of Brazil’s main ports fell 2 percent over the past week as dry weather facilitated loading operations. Brazil will get dry weather this week through tomorrow, weather forecaster Somar Meteorologia said in an e-mailed report on June 11.
Ships waiting at the country’s ports were set to load as many as 2.152 million tons of the sweetener as of yesterday, the shipping data showed. That compared with 2.196 million tons a week earlier.
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