BRAZIL: 116 sugar ships waiting to export
Published: 09/03/2010, 8:51:02 AM
Williams Shipping Agency says the lineup of vessels expected to load sugar at Brazilian ports in the coming weeks rose by six in the week ended Wednesday to 116 ships, according to Dow Jones.
The figure includes ships at berth, waiting at sea and those expected to dock by Oct. 5, as exporters grapple with heavy demand and shipping bottlenecks at Brazil's major ports.
This year, the short-term heavy demand for sugar exports to Asia, the Middle East and Africa, especially ahead of Ramadan earlier last month, combined with patchy rain on the coast has hampered the loading of the sweetener to delivery to world markets.
Ships are nominated to handle 3,360,250 metric tonnes of sugar, a rise of 1.6% from the heavy volume of 3,308,181 tonnes in the lineup a week ago.
The largest sugar lineup--2,538,077 tonnes--was listed to leave from Santos, the country's largest port. The port has been grappling with the queues of vessels waiting to load. That compared with 2,514,167 tonnes last week as sugar continues to arrive from mills in the nearby main center-south sugarcane region, which accounts for 90% of the country's cane output.
Ports face growing volume in Brazil's booming economy. Brazil's gross domestic product is expected to grow in excess of 7% this year, according to estimates by Brazilian economists and forecasts made outside the country.
In the south, the Paranagua port is nominated to ship 807,014 tonnes compared with 789,014 tonnes a week earlier and Imbituba in Santa Catarina state expects 5,000 tonnes.
The largest portion of sugar to be exported is very-high-polarization raw sugar, known as VHP, totaling 2,898,828 tonnes, compared with the 2,890,709 tonnes in last week's lineup.
Crystal B-150 sugar, or white sugar, registered this week exports of 429,559 tonnes expected to be shipped, compared with 385,609 tonnes last week.
Refined A45, another type of white sugar, had 31,863 tonnes expected to be shipped this week, compared with 31,863 tonnes in the previous week.