The premium on Thai raw sugar slipped on Monday, reflecting thin trade, with traders selling small lots of sugar to neighbouring countries, traders said. The premium was quoted at 108 points over New York prices for March shipment, down from 162 points quoted last week, they said.
"In buyers' view, a sugar price above 14 cent per pound remained high," one trader said. "They may wait to buy when New York prices dip." New York raw sugars were mixed on Friday, when the key May open-outcry contract finished at 14.62 cents per lb.
There was no premium offered for Thai consumer grade 100 percent ICUMSA white sugar as prices were already high and traders expected to sell less white sugar to Indonesia this year as they could not compete with India.
ICUMSA measures the colour of sugar. The lower the ICUMSA, the higher degree of whiteness. Indonesian state procurement agency Bulog bought 4,000 tonnes of white sugar from India at $388 a tonne on a cost and freight basis last week, a source said. Indonesia was the world's second-largest sugar exporter after Cuba in the 1930s, but is now a major importer, as domestic output cannot keep pace with consumption. It imports sugar for both industrial and household use, mostly from Thailand and Australia.
"Our price was quoted higher than $400 per tonnes without a premium. It's clear that we could not compete with India," another trader said. However, Thailand could sell some small lots of raw sugar to Indonesia with several containers, or around 8,000 tonnes due to be shipped to Jakarta this week, traders said. A few containers of refined white sugar were sold to Cambodia and Vietnam for shipment by land, they said.