Shippers see boon from Russia sugar import push

A surge of raw sugar shipments into Russia before an expected import duty cut in May is set to lift freight rates for smaller vessels and support raw sugar futures, but the window will be short. Russia, the world's No 3 raw sugar importer, is expected to sharply cut its raw sugar import tariff in May to $50 per tonne from $140 before a likely jump in June. London-based sugar group Czarnikow said last week up to 1 million tonnes of raw sugar were expected to arrive in Russia in May if the tariff fell to $50. Russia's industry lobby put the likely imports at 850,000 tonnes. Dealers said freight rates on the route from South Brazil to the Black Sea had risen to around $62 to $65 a tonne this week from around $52 to $54 a tonne in the past two weeks. Dealers said this week that they expected the Russian duty to jump to $200 per tonne in June, based on the likely recalculation of the tariff. Benchmark ICE raw sugar futures stood at 16.69 cents a lb on Wednesday, up 0.23 cent or 1.4 percent. Raw sugar futures slid almost 40 per cent in the first quarter of this year, as the market focused on a lack of physical demand after prices surged to a 29-year peak of 30.40 cents a lb on February 1.