RI coffee exports dampened by heavy rains

RI coffee exports dampened by heavy rains

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Coffee exports from Indonesia were
hampered by heavy rains and a shortage of containers while the
Vietnamese market turned quiet as most houses covered their
prompt shorts, traders said yesterday.

They said prices had firmed and in the floating market
differentials to London levels had edged up with Vietnamese
coffee now at parity or up to a $10 per ton premium and Indonesia
at a discount of between $70-100.

The premiums were an improvement of between $10-50 from last
week, they said.

In London, July robusta coffee closed $13 per ton lower to
$1,840 on Tuesday.

Indonesia coffee prices rose on supply concerns as the market
grew increasingly worried over recent heavy rains which affected
the crop's harvest and a shortage of containers leading to slower
exports.

"The crop is coming out but the quantity is small. It's pretty
low. The heavy rains are affecting the arrivals," one trader at a
European house said.

He said only small lots of Grade 4, 80 defects, have been sold
recently at a $70 per ton discount to July London prices for
nearby shipments and at about $100 for later dates.

Traders said the prevailing shortage of containers was
beginning to hurt exports but they were hopeful the situation
would resolve itself when shipments moved into full swing in
June.

"There is a shortage of containers as there are not many
containers going into Indonesia. But coffee is not going into
full swing yet so it's not such a big problem right now," another
trader said.

Traders said the riots and civil strife in several parts of
Indonesia had not affected coffee exports but were concerned that
shipments would be affected if the situation worsened.

"Rioting is going on. So anything can happen but so far there
problem has not affected the markets," a trader said.

Traders said the Vietnamese coffee market was calm on
Wednesday as most houses who were short for prompt product had
already covered their positions.

"Up to yesterday, there was a lot of short buying for very
prompt shipments. But today, I only hear of one house still in
the market looking to cover," a trader said.

Traders said the houses covered at least another 1,000 tons of
shorts on Tuesday at $1,840-1,850 per ton free-on-board Saigon
basis for benchmark grade 2, 5.0 black and broken.