Dry weather favours Brazil sugar production, exports

Dry, cool weather that started in mid-April and is expected to continue through May over Brazil's main sugar cane region will favour crushing operations at mills and allow ships to load and carry off sugar uninterrupted, local forecaster Somar said. Designation of ships is well underway to carry the biggest amount in decades of ICE futures exchange deliverable sugar against the May contract to receivers in China, India, Malaysia and Portugal.
Sugar and ethanol production across Brazil's center-south is accelerating en masse after a wet March and early April set back mills' plans to get an early jump on the task of harvesting a record 590 million tonne crop. Local meteorologists Somar said that mills would not be able to make up the ground lost in March and April yet, but would be able to post strong production numbers in the coming weeks due to the dry weather that would quicken harvest.
The cold front will push temperatures well below average without the risk of frost, which will enhance the production of sucrose and other sugars in the cane plant. Mills will benefit from better yields as a result, Somar said. Ships will also be able to load sugar uninterrupted by rains for the next week or more, Somar said. Rains at the ports shuts down loading of dry bulk commodities.
Somar went on to say in its weekly review of weather over the cane belt that weather in the past few weeks and the outlook for the rest of May is creating unfavourable conditions for replanting of cane fields. Mills replant heavily in April for the coming cane crop that will mature for harvest in 2014 and many mills will likely lose newly planted fields to the dry weather and have to replant if no rains return moisture levels to normal, Somar said.
The lineup of ships arriving and waiting to load Brazilian sugar from the 2013/14 crop has grown to 37 vessels from 30 a little over a week ago, shipping agents Williams Servicos Maritimos Ltda said. The flow of raw sugar due to leave Brazilian ports over the next week or two rose to more than a 1 million tonnes from the 795,418 tonnes last week.