Falling New York coffee prices sparked more purchasing by German industry this week with interest largely focused on first half 2005 delivery, Hamburg traders said on Friday.
New York CSCE September arabica closed some two percent down on Thursday at 65.55 cents a lb. on heavy fund and speculative selling. Prices had hovered around 90 cents in June. "We did see interest from industry this week but largely for positions next year," one trader said.
"With New York at this sort of level some buyers thought it was a good time to move." Costa Rica SHB was traded at plus 10 and plus 10.5 cents against the relevant New York contract, Costa Rica hard bean was traded at plus five cents, Honduras at minus 5.5 cents, Nicaragua SHG at minus four cents. All were for first half 2005 positions.
Indian plantation A and plantation B coffees were currently in short supplied and some washouts (buybacks) of previous contracts were reported.
Demand for Brazilian coffees were said to be more restrained because of relatively high prices and concerns about transport problems.
Brazil's booming agricultural exports have created shortages of containers in ports among other logistics bottlenecks. Some origin suppliers were holding out for higher differentials in the face of falling prices.