Cocoa Extends Gains in London After Stockpiles Drop; Sugar Rises
January 27, 2012, 8:12 AM ESTBy Claudia Carpenter
Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Cocoa gained for a fourth day in London and climbed to a two-month high in New York after falling stockpiles in Europe added to speculation that dry weather will curb supplies from West Africa.
Cocoa inventories with a valid grading certificate in European warehouses monitored by NYSE Liffe fell 1.8 percent since Jan. 9, exchange data yesterday showed. Prices in London have climbed 16 percent this year on speculation dry weather in Ivory Coast and Ghana will damage their so-called mid-crops set to be harvested through September.
“Lower stocks are supportive certainly at a time of concerns about the mid-crop in West Africa,” said Keith Flury, an analyst at Rabobank International in London.
Cocoa for March delivery climbed 0.3 percent to 1,596 pounds ($2,507) a metric ton at 10:19 a.m. in London on NYSE Liffe. Prices have jumped 7.6 percent in four days.
In New York, the March futures contract rose as much as 1.1 percent to $2,480 a ton on ICE Futures U.S., the highest price for a most-active contract since Nov. 18. Prices in New York have climbed 9.1 percent this week.
Ivory Coast’s mid-crop will be 260,000 tons, down from 300,000 tons last year, Rabobank estimates. Ivory Coast accounted for 36 percent of world cocoa production in 2010-11, estimates by the International Cocoa Organization show. The so- called main crop, the larger of the two annual crops, ends in March and the mid-crop usually starts in April, according to the ICCO, an industry group of 15 exporting countries and 29 importing nations, according to data on its website.
White, or refined, sugar climbed 0.5 percent to $651.80 a ton and raw sugar was unchanged at 24.73 cents a pound. Robusta coffee futures fell 0.1 percent to $1,870 a ton and arabica coffee declined 0.3 percent to $2.1915 a pound.
--Editors: Claudia Carpenter, John Deane
To contact the reporter on this story: Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
