Sugar glut

Raw-sugar futures fell 19 percent to 18.95 cents a pound this year on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Prices, which reached 36.08 cents in February 2011, the highest since 1980, may drop to 18 cents by the year-end.

While cereals are scarce this year and see their prices drastically rising, sugar is abundant which has been dragging its price down since last summer. Sugar price fall has even accelerated this past month, especially since production in Brazil could bring a big surplus next spring.

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Disney Announces Paper Sourcing and Use Policy

Disney has made a new commitment to ensure the Company’s operations and those of its licensees minimize their consumption of paper and maximize their use of recycled content.

The paper sourcing and use policy recognizes the urgency of addressing deforestation, especially in Indonesia and means they will be eliminating paper connected to the destruction of endangered forests and animals.

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Rubber jumps to Four-Month High as Top Producers cut shipments

March-delivery rubber rose 4.6 percent to end at 272.5 yen a kilogram ($3,490 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, the highest settlement for the most active contract since May 30. Futures have gained 2.7 percent this year.

Rubber jumped to a four-month high, erasing this year’s losses, after the world’s largest producers began cutting exports by the most since 2009, reducing supplies.

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Upward pressure on rubber price likely

In 2008, during the financial crisis, the price of rubber lost 56%. Facing this situation, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, representing about 70 percent of global natural-rubber supply, agreed to withdraw 690,000 tonnes from the market. Rubber price surged more than 100% the following year.

Rubber plunged 43 percent in the past year and reached its lowest level in almost three years as growth slowed in China, the top consumer, and Europe. At the Tokyo Stock Exchange Tuesday, January harvest  was trading at 213,800 yen per tonne, the lowest price since October 2009. Same story at the Shanghai Stock Exchange, where January contracts were down to 21,150 yuan per tonne. Overall, rubber has lost nearly 27% of its value between March, its highest rate, and August.

So, after Indonesia indicated early July it was considering introducing a minimum price, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia today signed an agreement to reduce their rubber supply by 450,000 tons. Practically, 300,000 tons will not be exported this summer and 16,000 hectares of aging trees will be cut. If history repeats itself, this should give a major boost to rubber prices. Read the rest of Upward pressure on rubber price likely » » »

Myanmar wants to be the world’s biggest rice exporter again

Myanmar has decided to develop its rice production, following its neighbors steps. The government hopes to export 2 million tons of rice in 2013, and 3 million tons in 2015.
From 778,000 tons in 2011, the volumes available for export could double this year, according to estimates by the USDA.

According to the head of crop research at International Rice Research Institute, Myanmar has a perfect environment for growing rice in many areas, untapped potentials that could quickly make it a leading exporter.

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Indonesia: more mining export permits issued

As we were mentioning in Aluminum: China is running out of bauxite, in May, Indonesia asked all mining companies to either build their own processing capabilities locally or partner with companies able to do so, knowing that by 2014, exports of raw minerals, including bauxite, would be forbidden. Indonesia‘s goal is to derive more revenue from its mining sector.

As of late June, only 13 firms had been approved which triggered panic buying by customers in Japan and China.

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Rubber: Major producing countries to introduce support price?

Indonesia, the world’s second-largest natural rubber producer, is considering introducing a minimum price under an agreement with other major Southeast Asian producers Thailand and Malaysia, to avert a further decline in the commodity’s price in the crisis-hit global markets.

The three countries, whose natural rubber production accounts for 70 per cent of global output, might jointly limit exports and set an export quota for natural rubber which fell 25% in four months on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM).

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Aluminum: China is running out of bauxite

Addicted to Indonesian bauxite, Chinese aluminum companies need to diversify their sources of supply or develop local production. Eventually, this supply issue should lead to an increase in China aluminum imports.

China has been dependent on imported iron ore to meet the needs of its steel industry development. This caused soaring prices for iron ore and metallurgical coal in the last ten years.

A parallel can be drawn with bauxite. Over the last 5 years, ever-increasing volumes of bauxite have been imported to feed aluminum refineries in China. The aluminum companies have decided to refine bauxite themselves rather than buy aluminum because of significantly lower investment costs in China.

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Record rice production for the 3rd consecutive year

The 2012 rice harvest could be the best in history while global demand is softening, except in Africa.

The cultivated rice field areas have further increased this year in Asia. Consequently, world production will reach close to 490 million tonnes of white rice (according to the FAO), ten million tons more than last year, already an all-time record.

For the last 3 years, harvests kept getting bigger, and they will increase again in China, other major exporting countries like Thailand and Vietnam, but also among smaller suppliers: Pakistan, Cambodia, Burma, Australia. Only the american continent had a disappointing harvest: the United States and Brazil favoured more profitable soybeans.

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Nickel Slump Seen Ending as China Faces Ore Import Curbs

Nickel fell 12 percent this year on prospects for the biggest surplus since 2009. Morgan Stanley now predicts the glut will peak in 2012 and Barclays says prices should rally toward the end of the year on strengthening demand from stainless-steel makers, the biggest consumers.

The rebound may not happen until then as China runs down record ore stockpiles accumulated in anticipation of the Indonesian ban.

After slumping more than any other industrial metal, analysts and traders say the worst may be over for nickel as restrictions on shipments from Indonesia, the biggest producer, diminish a worldwide glut.

via Nickel Slump Seen Ending as China Faces Ore Import Curbs – Bloomberg.