Indonesian state plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara X (PTPN X) bought 9,000 tonnes of raw sugar at $316 a tonne including cost, insurance and freight from trading house Wee Tiong on Thursday, the company's head of marketing said.
The purchase is part of an import permit for 35,000 tonnes of raw sugar for delivery by the end of October. "The raw sugar is expected to enter Surabaya port by the end of September at the latest," Adi Santoso told Reuters.
Santoso said the company will hold another tender to seek the rest, but the time is not yet set.
"The imported raw sugar is to fill up the idle capacity in our factories," he said, adding the firm was aiming to produce 435,000 tonnes of white sugar this year.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest sugar buyer, imports sugar because demand outstrips production. It is projected to produce 2.48 million tonnes of white sugar this year, up from 2.24 million tonnes in 2005.
But annual consumption is estimated at 2.6 to 2.7 million tonnes in 2006. Consumption is likely to increase at the end of this month as the festival season gets under way.
Comments
Comments are closed.