RI coffee sales steady as roasters mark time
RI coffee sales steady as roasters mark time
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesian coffee sales are steady,
although roasters had slowed down the pace of their buying,
dealers said yesterday.
"The Western roasters are holding off a bit. The supply from
Indonesia is fairly steady although the offtake is not very
fast," a dealer for a Singapore-based trading house said.
A trader for a European trading company said Indonesian coffee
exporters "sold quite a lot the past few weeks, but I don't see
much physical business being done now. The market's slowed down."
Traders said about 110,000-115,000 tons of coffee from
Indonesia had been sold or committed, although one senior dealer
said the amount was probably more than 200,000 tons.
"Most of the crop has already been sold through July," he
said. Total exports of coffee this year will probably be between
230,000 and 270,000 tons, traders said.
"We got quite a lot of coffee out," one dealer said.
Indonesia's key Grade 4 coffee, 80 defects, was seen by the trade
at around US$1,345-$1,400 a ton FOB Lampung against the previous
week's $1,400-$1,450 a ton on the same basis.
The trade was still divided about the extent of any fall in
Indonesia's coffee harvest. Most dealers estimate the crop will
fall by 20-25 percent.
But one senior trader dismissed Indonesian claims coffee
exports will fall by up to 30 percent after heavy rains and
strong winds pounded coffee farms on Sumatra.
"I don't think it's going to be really down. If there was a
real problem, you'd see London futures fly out," he said.
Indonesia is the world's biggest producer of robusta beans and
ranks behind Brazil and Colombia as the third largest producer of
coffee.
Dealers said Vietnamese exporters were continuing to hang on
to about 50,000 tons of robusta coffee left over from their
recent harvest.
"The Vietnamese are very canny about this. I remember they
tripled the price of the coffee they sold a few years back when
the Brazilian harvest was hit by frost. They're hoping it would
happen again this year," one trader said.
The price of Vietnam's Grade 2 coffee, 8.0 percent black and
broken, was seen by the trade slightly easier at $1,300-$1,400 a
ton FOB Saigon against last week's $1,350-$1,400 a ton on the
same basis.
London robusta prices are seen opening up to $10 higher. One
dealer said the LIFFE July futures contract should hover between
$1,550-$1,700 a ton over the next few weeks.
"London is not doing a lot, but it should open slightly
higher," a dealer said.
Trading in the robusta coffee contract on the Singapore
Commodity Exchange (SICOM) was a meager 415 lots on Tuesday.
SICOM said 405 lots of the September contract settled at
$1,470 a ton while the remaining 10 lots of the July contract
finished at $1,477 a ton.
Table: SOUTHEAST ASIAN COFFEE PRICES (US$ a ton)
April 30 April 23
Indonesia - Grade 4 FOB Lampung US$1,350/400 $1,400/450
Vietnam - Grade 2 FOB Saigon 1,300/400 1,350/400
Thailand - Robusta FAQ/FOB Bangkok 1,375/450 1,500/540
Papua New Guinea (PNG) - Robusta 1,632 1,755
PNG - Arabica 'A' Grade (U.S. cents/lb) 233.95 223.35
PNG - Arabica 'X' Grade (U.S. cents/lb) 223.95 213.35
PNG - Arabica 'Y' Grade (U.S. cents/lb) 206.95 213.35
India - Arabica PB Grade (rupee/kg) 141-142
NA India - Arabica A Grade (rupee/kg) 140-141