- Early crushing in western region helps growth
- Unseasonal rains slow crushing in north India
- Mills await prices to cross 21 cents/lb for exports
India’s sugar output rose 9.8% year on year to 4.72 million mt until Nov. 30 since the start of the current crushing season from Oct. 1, compared with 4.3 million mt in the same period of 2020-21, the latest updates from the Indian Sugar Mills Association showed Dec. 2.
The higher levels showed the possibility of a healthy output trend during 2021-22 (October-September) in the world’s second-largest sugar producer after Brazil.
S&P Global Platts Analytics expects India’s sugar output to be 31 million mt for 2021-22.
The industry body attributed the higher output to an early start of the crushing season by mills in the western region even though the crushing was delayed due to unseasonal rains in north India.
“The higher production is because of the earlier start of crushing operations in Maharashtra and higher availability of sugarcane this season,” ISMA said in a statement.
A total 416 mills undertook crushing activities in the Oct. 1-Nov. 30 period compared with 409 mills in the year-earlier season.
India’s sugar year runs from October to September.
In Maharashtra, 172 sugar mills produced 2 million mt until Nov. 15 compared with 1.58 million mt a year earlier produced by 158 mills.
In Uttar Pradesh, 101 mills produced 1.04 million mt until Nov. 30 compared with 111 mills that produced 1.27 million mt in the year-ago period, down 18.1% year on year.
Analysts said the lower output in Uttar Pradesh, the highest cane growing state of India, was due to unseasonal rains in October that had caused around two weeks’ delay in the start of the crushing season.
Karnataka produced 1.28 million mt by 66 mills until November compared with 1.11 million mt by 63 mills in the same period of 2020-21.
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are the top three sugar-producing provinces of India, the world’s No. 1 consumer of sweeteners.
The western state of Gujarat produced 166,000 mt in the first two months of the new crushing season, up 0.6% year on year from 165,000 mt in the same period last year. The number of mills involved in crushing was 15, the same as last year.
In the Oct. 1-Nov. 30 period, sugar output in the rest of India stood at 260,000 mt compared with 182,000 mt, up 13.2% year on year. A total 62 mills operated in the first two months of the current season, the same as last season.
Crushing operations in all the states have begun and the pace of crushing is picking up, an industry official said.
India produced 31.18 million mt sugar in 2020-21 (October-September), according to Platts Analytics.
Export scenario
Indian traders contracted 3.5 million mt of export deals in October-November, the first two months of the crushing season, ISMA said.
Most of the export deals were carried out when global prices prevailed in the range of 20-21 cents/lb, it said.
Currently, not much was happening on export deals as prices have come down to below 20 cents/lb.
The pressure on mills to immediately go for new export deals was less as a substantial quantity of about 3.4 million mt of sugar equivalent is estimated to get diverted for ethanol production, ISMA said.
It seemed that sugar mills would wait for an upward revision of global prices to about 21 cents/lb or more for any fresh export deals, the industry body said.
