London coffees closed modestly higher on Tuesday in a subdued market where spreads accounted for a significant part of volume and dealers said the outlook was for a range-bound market.
Prices opened higher and remained in positive territory, but origin offers capped the upside and roaster support was limited.
Traders said the strong dollar encouraged origin selling but some producers like Brazil remained on the sidelines.
"There has not been the aggressive selling that you could have expected from such a move in the real (against the dollar)," a trader said.
"But they are in the 11th month of the crop so they don't need to be aggressive.
"Whatever they have is on the trees or in strong hands and they are not ready to sell at these prices. If we were in July it would be a different situation."
Traders said momentum to move out of the range should come from New York and the CSCE market seemed stuck in a 69 to 73 cents-per-lb range.
Benchmark July closed $3 up at $720 on 2,397 lots out of a turnover of 3,860 lots.
Second most active September ended $2 up at $736 on 1,204 lots.
July/September traded broadly flat from Monday around a $17 discount.
Brazil's real fell to its weakest level in more than a year on Monday, easing 2.61 percent to 3.143 per US dollar. On Tuesday, the dollar lost momentum.