The amount of sugar awaiting loading at ports in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, climbed 27 percent over the past week as vessels head to the Black Sea and Iran, according to Williams Servicos Maritimos Ltda.
About 1.28 million metric tons of the sweetener was waiting to be loaded onto ships at the ports of Recife, Suape, Maceio, Paranagua and Santos, the country’s biggest, data e-mailed yesterday from the Recife, Brazil-based shipping agency showed. That compared with 1 million tons a week earlier.

About 12 percent, or 153,832 tons, of all the sweetener awaiting loading was heading to the Black Sea region, the data showed. Another 150,000 tons were bound to Iran and 139,000 tons to Malaysia, according to the shipping agency. Vessels scheduled to sail to Indonesia, set to be the world’s largest raw sugar importer in 2012-13, would carry 111,315 tons.

Many sugar importing countries have been re-building inventories as surpluses emerged after the shortages that resulted in prices rising to a 30-year high in February 2011, according to Lausanne, Switzerland-based researcher Kingsman SA, owned by McGraw-Hill Cos. The global sugar surplus will be 7.8 million tons in the 2012-13 season started in October, Czarnikow Group Ltd. said yesterday.

“Restocking has exceeded many analysts’ estimations, particularly in Egypt, Iran, East Africa and of course in China,” Kingsman said in a report e-mailed Dec. 17.

White, or refined, sugar for March delivery slid 0.8 percent to $513.50 a ton by 9:42 a.m. on NYSE Liffe in London. Raw sugar for March delivery fell 0.9 percent to 19.06 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.

By Bloomberg

 

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