Thai sugar premiums steady, new crop seen lower

Sugar premiums in Thailand, one of Asia's major exporters, are likely to stay steady over the next few days on expectations of reduced supply, traders said on Monday.
Thai raw sugar premiums for July-September were steady at 140 points over CSCE futures without bids.
Thai exporters offered to sell Thai 100 ICUMSA white sugar on Monday steady at around $250 per tonne FOB for June shipment.
"Some traders have also been seeking to buy white sugar for Cambodia, but in small volumes," said one trader.
ICUMSA measures the colour of sugar. The lower the ICUMSA level, the higher the sugar's degree of whiteness. ICUMSA 100 is considered consumer-grade sugar, used in cakes and confectionery.
The supply of Thai raws is expected to fall in coming weeks as a few millers, including Mitr Phol, Thailand's largest sugar miller and exporter, would continue refining whites from raws until October, millers said.
"We are refining whites to fulfil our export contracts, mainly for Indonesia and countries in the Middle East," said one Mitr Phol official.
Farmers have started planting the 2004/05 (October-September) cane crop after good rains this month, millers said.
The crop year runs from October to September, but the harvest normally ends by mid-April.
Officials, traders and millers said the new crop might be smaller than the previous one given that some cane in the north-east, which produces about 40 percent of the country's total, has been damaged by drought.
Farmers in the north-east normally plant the new crop in November.
The government estimates the next crop at 60 million tonnes, or 6.3 million tonnes of raw sugar, down from 64.48 million tonnes in the previous 2003/04 due to drought, said Nattaphon Nattasomboon, a senior government officer for sugar.
"We estimate the crop at 61 million tonnes," said a trader at a major European trading firm.
Thailand, Asia's largest exporter of raw sugar, is expected to have around 4.2-4.3 million tonnes for shipment in 2004/05, lower than the 5.2 million projected for 2003/04, Nattaphon said.
Thailand's key buyers are Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, IIndonesia and South Korea.