Both International and Domestic Market Are Sluggish, Hard to See Improvement

The international sugar market is sluggish with the upsurge of production in both Brazil and India. The global economy has been hampered by COVID-19, both sugar consumption and trade are restrained. Brazil saw production up by 32% and India up 12%. The global oversupply can hardly be eased in the near future.

The recovery of domestic sugar consumption is slow, the sales ratio has slipped but stock surged. Sugar production stood at 10.4151 million tons in July, down 3.21% YoY; 7.9572 million tons was sold, down 7.11% YoY; the sales ratio was 76.40%, the industrial inventory was 2.4975 million tons, up 12.00% YoY.

Sugar import during the month was down 24.18% MoM, but still kept at a high level. The import amount was 313,800 tons, down 24.18% MoM or 27.87% lower YoY. The yearly total import recorded 1.5565 million tons, outstripping the import in same period last year, up 3.43% YoY.

Domestic sugar price kept on sliding. While there is mounting forecast on import but slow recovery of domestic consumption, the falling trend of domestic price can hardly reverse as the international price is also sluggish. The average spot price for white granulated sugar during the month was 5,500 yuan.ton, down 1.39% MoM.