Insight Focus
Raw sugar futures traded sideways. Commercial participants closed small number of positions. Speculators are continuing to add to their shorts.
New York No.11 Raw Sugar Futures
The raw sugar market traded sideways last week, remaining in the 18-19c/lb range.
Looking at the commercial participants, both producers and end-users have closed a small amount of their recently opened positions. Producers have closed out 1.2k lots of short positions and end-users have closed out 2.7k lots of long positions.
Speculators have continued to add to their short positions over the past week, adding 2.6k lots of new short positions. Speculators have also opened 5.9k lots of long positions, bringing the net spec position up slightly to -81k lots.
The No.11 futures curve remains flat across the board.
London No.5 Refined Sugar Futures
The No.5 refined sugar futures traded slightly lower in the past week, closing at 541.7USD/mt on Friday.
There has been minimal activity from speculators over the past week, with the net spec position remaining largely unchanged at 15.1k lots.
The refined sugar futures curve has weakened over the past week, with the curve remaining in backwardation through to Dec’24.
No.5 Open Interest
White Premium (Arbitrage)
The Q/N white premium has traded lower over the past week and is now trading at around 135.8USD/mt.
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
