Recasts, changes headline, adds closing prices and comments
NEW YORK/LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – White sugar futures on ICE closed more than 2% higher on Tuesday after gaining 4% in the prior session, as traders look to lock in supply ahead of the contract expiry on Wednesday.
Arabica coffee prices fell to their lowest in three weeks.
SUGAR
* October white sugar LSUc1, which expires on Wednesday, closed $10.90 up, or 2.2%, at $495.60 a tonne, extending Monday’s gains as some in the market position to receive sugar at expiry.
* “An expiry squeeze can also be viewed as the trade seeing signs of more demand than are currently obvious in carry spreads and refining premiums,” said Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
* “Whether that urgency to buy continues though is an open question,” it added.
* October raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.02 cent, or 0.1%, at 18.96 cents per lb.
* France, the European Union’s biggest sugar producer, is expected to harvest 33.12 million tonnes of sugar beet this year, up 26.4% from 2020, the farm ministry said.
* Hurricane Ida damaged an estimated 118,000 acres of sugarcane crops in Louisiana, or about 26% of the crop that would be harvested for sugar production in the state.
COFFEE
* December arabica coffee KCc2 settled down 1.35 cent, or 0.7%, at $1.8545 per lb, hitting a three-week low of $1.8250 earlier in the session.
* Arabica has been slowly slipping since soaring above $2 per lb in late July to its highest in nearly seven years following freak frosts in top producer Brazil.
* Rains were reported over the weekend and more is expected in coming days in Brazil, which could improve prospects for next year’s crop.
* November robusta coffee LRCc2 rose $6, or 0.3%, at $2,063 a tonne.
* Top robusta producer Vietnam’s coffee exports in August were down 8.7% from July, customs data showed. For the first eight months of 2021, Vietnam’s coffee exports fell 6.4% year-on-year.
COCOA
* December New York cocoa CCc2 settled up $19, or 0.7%, to $2,656 a tonne.
* December London cocoa LCCc2 rose 5 pounds, or 0.3%, to 1,793 pounds per tonne.
* High soil moisture in top producer Ivory Coast is expected to help the development of the October-to-March main crop, farmers said.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira and Maytaal Angel Editing by Edmund Blair, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Shailesh Kuber)
((marcelo.teixeira@tr.com; +1 332 220 8062; Reuters Messaging: marcelo.teixeira.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net – https://twitter.com/tx_marcelo))
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