Indian sugar mills close early, lifting local prices
Over three dozen sugar mills in India's leading cane-producing states halted operations last week, nearly two months earlier than usual, due to lower cane supplies caused by adverse weather, industry official told Reuters.
These early closures suggest India will produce less sugar than initially estimated. Production concerns are lifting local sugar prices and prompting mills to seek higher prices for overseas sales of their limited export quota.
The slower pace of shipments from India, the world's second-biggest sugar producer, will support global prices .
Indeed, there was a big jump in mill closures this year.
At least 37 mills in the western state of Maharashtra, neighboring Karnataka, and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh have closed operations, said a senior industry official, who declined to be named.
During the same period last year, only 11 mills had closed.
"Last year's drought hit cane yields hard. In many districts, supplies ran out, forcing mills to shut down early," B.B. Thombare, president of the West Indian Sugar Mills Association told Reuters.
Many Maharashtra mills are struggling to get enough sugarcane, operating at half their capacity, and will likely close for the season by the end of this month, he said.
India's sugar output during the 2024-25 marketing year, ending in September this year, may fall to 27.27 million metric tons, down 14.7% from a year ago, the Indian Sugar and Bio Energy Manufacturers Association estimated last month.
However, dealers with global trade houses predict even lower production, given the pace at which mills are closing.
"We estimate that production could fall to around 26 million tons," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.
The early closure of mills, along with permission to export 1 million metric tons of sugar, has lifted local prices by 10% in a month.
"The rise in local prices has improved mills financially. They are seeking 45,000 rupees per ton or more to supply sugar for exports," said a New-Delhi based dealer with a global trade house.
Exports are slow because mills are reluctant to sign contracts immediately, hoping prices will rise further, he said.
(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arabian Post
10 hours ago
- Arabian Post
Afreximbank downgrade dispute raises questions on loan categorisation
African Union's African Peer Review Mechanism has challenged Fitch Ratings' downgrade of the African Export‑Import Bank, arguing the move rests on a misinterpretation of its sovereign loan portfolio. On 4 June, Fitch lowered Afreximbank's long‑term foreign‑currency issuer rating from BBB to BBB‑—a notch above junk—with a negative outlook. The agency attributed the downgrade to elevated credit risk, citing an estimated non‑performing loan ratio of 7.1 %, primarily due to sovereign exposures to Ghana, South Sudan and Zambia classified as NPLs. The APRM asserts that Fitch's classification is flawed and inconsistent with Afreximbank's own disclosure of an NPL ratio of 2.44 % as of end‑March. The AU‑established body emphasises the bank's status as a multilateral lender created under a 1993 treaty, which binds member governments—including Ghana and Zambia—as signatories, shareholders and founding members. APRM contends such loans are grounded in intergovernmental cooperation rather than standard commercial terms, so treating them as NPLs misrepresents their nature. Fitch defended its methodology, stating that its supranational rating decisions adhere to globally consistent and publicly available criteria, and highlighting that their analysis clearly identified rating drivers and sensitivities. The agency maintains sovereign exposures showing delayed repayments meet its threshold for classification as non‑performing, irrespective of legal structures or treaties. In that sense, the downgrade aligns with accepted analytical standards. ADVERTISEMENT APRM's critique zeroes in on that threshold. It argues that sovereign repayment negotiations are routine diplomatic engagements, not signs of default. It remains concerned that Fitch's decision conflates financial dialogue with credit impairment. The body has formally called on Fitch, Afreximbank and other African institutions to convene technical consultations and reassess the rating, emphasising the importance of contextually intelligent credit assessments. Beyond the immediate dispute, this episode resonates with a broader continental debate over the relevance and fairness of global credit‑rating frameworks applied to African multilaterals. Africa's longstanding concerns that Western rating methodologies fail to grasp local realities and may unfairly inflate borrowing costs have sparked momentum for alternative mechanisms. Among these, an Africa‑led credit‑rating agency is under development, envisaged to begin operations by September 2025, aimed at providing sovereign ratings that reflect regional economic and institutional contexts. Central to the debate is Afreximbank's evolving lending strategy. Under outgoing president Benedict Okey Oramah, the Cairo‑based lender has aggressively expanded its footprint, increasingly financing private sector projects across the continent and taking calculated sovereign exposure. Supporting growth in under‑served markets like Zimbabwe and Nigeria, the bank grew its asset base from around US$7 billion in 2015 to approximately US$40 billion in 2024, with deposits rising to US$37 billion. That growth has attracted scrutiny. Fitch has highlighted what it sees as elevated concentration of corporate and sovereign risk, pointing to an NPL ratio that exceeds its internal threshold. Observers note that up to 92 % of Afreximbank's lending is directed at commercial businesses, and certain sovereign loans carry interest rates as high as 6.875 % over benchmark rates—much higher than traditional development finance institutions. Proponents of the APRM's position, including lead credit‑ratings expert Misheck Mutize, argue that supplementary indicators such as capital adequacy, collateral density and profitability should carry mitigating weight. Mutize points to a strong equity ratio of 19 %, risk‑weighted capital at 21 %, internal capital generation through profits, and loan collateral cover for 84 % of the portfolio. These factors, he suggests, are downplayed in the rating downgrade despite being explicitly acknowledged in Fitch's own analytic framework. He warns that over‑reliance on contested NPL figures can breach the methodology's balance principles. ADVERTISEMENT Not everyone supports APRM's framing. Analysts note that countries like Zambia officially halted repayments to Afreximbank in 2021, and South Sudan failed to honour its obligations, prompting legal recourse in London. Zambia's treasury has openly stated its debt will be restructured. Against this backdrop, Fitch's interpretation that certain sovereign debt has become non‑performing appears defensible under global standards. This dispute underscores a tension: Afreximbank's assertive growth strategy has boosted its developmental reach and institutional clout, yet it must reconcile that dynamism with risk and transparency expectations imposed by global credit agencies. With Oramah set to step down later this month, the new president will face a pivotal choice: maintain aggressive expansion as the bank charts an independent path, or recalibrate operations to conform more closely with multilateral development bank norms—a course change that could preserve borrowing benefits but limit growth prerogatives. Beyond institutional implications, the outcome has broader financial consequences. A downgrade to BBB‑ tightens Afreximbank's borrowing costs, heightens the risk premium for countries swayed by its lending, and complicates its mission to finance intra‑continental trade. That may squeeze African exporters and traders relying on the bank's funding. Policy stakeholders are paying attention. The APRM's call for dialogue and transparency signals a pushback against the perceived hold of Western agencies over African financial destiny. Meanwhile, the African Development Bank is developing a Continental Financial Stability Mechanism that may borrow under a regional rating—another step towards financial sovereignty.
Al Etihad
11 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Apple announces design overhaul of operating systems with 'liquid glass', opening up underlying AI technology to developers
9 June 2025 23:12 CUPERTINO (REUTERS)Apple said on Monday it will open up the underlying technology it uses for Apple Intelligence and announced an overhaul of its operating tone and content of the presentations at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference focused more on incremental developments, including live translations for phone calls, that improve everyday life rather than the sweeping ambitions for AI that Apple's rivals are software chief Craig Federighi said the company is opening up the foundational AI model that it uses for some of its own features to third-party developers."This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar," Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, said of the delays of some features such as improvements to the Siri virtual an early demonstration of how partners could improve Apple apps, the company added image generation from OpenAI's ChatGPT to its Image Playground app, saying that user data would not be shared with OpenAI without a user's is facing an unprecedented set of technical and regulatory challenges as some of its key executives kicked off the company's annual software developer conference on of Apple, which were flat before the conference, slipped 1.5% after executives took the stage in Cupertino, also said Apple plans a design overhaul of all of its operating redesign of its operating systems centered on a design it calls "liquid glass", where icons and menus are partially transparent, a step Apple executives said was possible because of the more powerful custom chips in Apple devices versus a decade said the new design will span operating systems for iPhones, Macs and other Apple also said Apple's operating systems will be given year names instead of sequential numbers for each version. That will unify naming conventions that have become confusing because Apple's core operating systems for phones, watches and other devices kicked off at different times, resulting in a smattering of differently numbered operating systems for different other new features, Apple introduced "Call Screening" where iPhones will automatically answer calls from an unknown number and ask the caller the purpose of their call. Once the caller states their purpose, the iPhone will show a transcription of the reason for the call, and ring for the also said it will add live translation to phone calls, as well as allow developers to integrate its live translation technology into their apps. Apple said the caller on the other end of the phone call will not need to have an iPhone for the live translation feature to work. Apple's Visual Intelligence app - which can help users find a pair of shoes similar to ones at which they have pointed an iPhone camera - will be extended to analysing items on the iPhone's screen and linked together with apps. Apple gave an example of seeing a jacket online and using the feature to find a similar one for sale on an app already installed in the user's iPhone.
Al Etihad
18 hours ago
- Al Etihad
London stocks pull back as investors turn cautious ahead of US-China talks
9 June 2025 16:40 LONDON (REUTERS) London's benchmark index slipped on Monday after rounding off four weeks of gains, as caution prevailed ahead of much-awaited US-China talks later in the FTSE 100 was down 0.3%, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 was up 0.4%.Top officials from the US and China are scheduled to meet in London for talks that investors hope will indicate some progress in de-escalating trade tensions between the world's two biggest talks follow a phone call between the presidents of the two countries last week, in which they agreed to hold more talks amid a global trade war that has escalated from tit-for-tat tariffs to export finance minister Rachel Reeves will hold a meeting with Chinese vice premier, He Lifeng, without providing any details on the sectors were lower, with aerospace and defence stocks leading losses. They were down 0.9%, extending declines to a third session. Pharma stocks dipped 0.8%, as investors looked to book some stocks rounded off the previous week with gains, after a US jobs report allayed concerns of an economic slowdown in the world's biggest economy, despite a US tariff roller stocks, WPP slipped about 2% to bottom the FTSE 100. The ad group said its chief executive officer, Mark Read, would retire by the end of soared 70% to top the FTSE 250 after the scientific instruments maker said it has received a takeover proposal from private equity firm Advent, valuing its shares at 37.35 pounds per jumped 24% after US chipmaker Qualcomm agreed to acquire to semiconductor company for about $2.4 billion. M&G Investments gained 1.7% as UBS upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral'.
