Summary of industry operation in 2018/19 crushing season

The production and marketing in 2018/19 crushing season have been completed, and the sugar production period of 2019/20 has been fully started. So the industry operation situation of 2018/19 crushing season is summarized as follows:
 
(1) The number of sugar-producing enterprises decreased, sugar cane output decreased and sugar beet output increased: During the 2018/19 crushing season, 211 sugar plants were in operation, 7 less than the previous season. Among them, sugar cane crushing plants amounted to 176, down 13 year on year; sugar beet crushing plants amounted to 35, up 6 year on year. In recent years, the sugar-cane crushing industry, especially in Guangxi, has implemented strategic restructuring, concentrating limited resources on superior enterprises, and gradually realizing resource optimization and integration through closing down and transforming. The number of sugar cane crushing plants has been decreasing year by year. At the same time, the beet production bases led by Inner Mongolia were favored by capital. In the recent three years, the number of beet sugar plants increased from 26 in the 2015/16 crushing season to 35 in this crushing season through continuous production capacity construction and expansion. 
 
(2) Both production and marketing thrived: In the 2018/19 crushing season, sugar output was 10.76 million tons, an increase of 450,000 tons or 4.4% compared with the previous sugar production period. Sugarcane sugar output was 9.45 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 280,000 tons or 3.1%. Beet sugar output was 1.31 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 160,000 tons or 13.9%. By the end of August, a total of 9.6 million tons of sugar had been sold, an increase of 707,000 tons or 8.0% over the previous sugar production period. Industrial inventory of 1.16 million tons, 260,000 tons less than the previous sugar production period, is the lowest point of the past five crushing seasons.
 
(3) Sugar price decline and the industrial losses: the cumulative average sales price of finished sugar of key sugar enterprises was 5165 yuan/ton, which is 600 yuan/ton less than the same period in the previous sugar production period. Domestic spot price of sugar has been hovering at 5100-5300 yuan/ton for a long time, and began to rise significantly after July. At present, the spot price of sugar is around 5750 yuan, but still lower than the cost of sugar production, so the industry faces losses.
 
(4) Sugar imports still under control: By August, China had imported sugar of 2.82 million tons, an increase of 590,000 tons or 26.5% over the previous crushing season. Although the import volume increased and international price remained low, the volume did not show significant rise like 2014/15 crushing season, and the imports was still controllable.
 
(5) Stable sugar consumption: In the first half year, the national food industry had been running at stable speed with good returns. The operating income increased by 5% year on year. The total profits increased by 10% year on year. Sugary food production had been a steady rise in general. Considering other sweeteners’ influence to sugar consumption tending to be stable, the consumption was smooth in the 2018/19 sugar production period.