Sugar #11 May 21 (SB=F)
| Pre. Settlement | N/A |
| Settlement date | 2021-04-30 |
| Open | 16.82 |
| Bid | 16.50 |
| Last price | 16.45 |
| Day's range | 16.41 - 16.82 |
| Volume | 60,938 |
| Ask | 16.51 |
- TechCrunch
Has a startup finally found one of food science's holy grails with its healthy sugar substitute?
Sharing the stage with other innovation-minded budding entrepreneurs, the Cambridge scientists boasted of a technology that could produce a sweetener that would mimic not just the taste of sugar, but the caramelization and stickiness that makes sugar the go-to additive for the bulk of roughly 74% of packaged foods that are made with some form of sweetener. Their company, Cambridge Glycoscience could claim a huge slice of a market worth at least a $100 billion market, they said. Now, the company has a new name, Supplant, and $24 million in venture capital financing to start commercializing its low-cost sugar substitute made from the waste materials of other plants. By the first century AD Greek and Roman scholars were referencing its medicinal properties and, after the Crusades, sugar consumption traveled across Europe through the Middle Ages.
- Reuters
Container shortage slows Indian sugar exports, fuels price rally
India's sugar exports could fall by 12% to 5 million tonnes this year as a shortage of containers slows trade and threatens to drive up global prices that are already at four-year highs, industry officials told Reuters. The lower exports from the world's second biggest sugar producer, especially during the first half of 2021, could also allow rival Brazil to increase shipments in the second half of the year when Brazil does the bulk of its exporting. "The container shortage is limiting our exports," said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd. "We have signed exports contracts for about 3 million tonnes but managed to ship only around 1 million tonnes."
- Bloomberg
Commodities Hit Highest Since 2013 Amid Inflation Concern
(Bloomberg) -- Commodities rose to their highest in almost eight years amid booming investor appetite for everything from oil to corn.Hedge funds have piled into what’s become the biggest bullish wager on the asset class in at least a decade, a collective bet that government stimulus plus near-zero interest rates will fuel demand, generate inflation and further weaken the U.S. dollar as the economy rebounds from the pandemic.The Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index, which tracks price movements for 23 raw materials, rose 1.6% on Monday to its highest since March 2013. The gauge has already gained more than 60% since reaching a four-year low in March 2020.Advances on the day were helped by copper, which rose above $9,000 a metric ton for the first time in nine years, before extending gains further on Tuesday. Oil also jumped to the highest in more than a year on speculation that global supplies are rapidly tightening, while coffee and sugar rose.“Folks who have really ignored commodities for quite a long time are now starting to get positioned,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities. “The implication is that this could go on for a bit. It’s very much a function of expectations of scarcity.”JPMorgan Chase & Co. said earlier this month that commodities appear to have begun a new supercycle -- an extended period during which prices are well above their long-run trend. That echoes similar comments from others including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Commodities have seen four comparable cycles over the past 100 years.The asset class is typically viewed as a good hedge against inflation, which has recently become more of a concern among investors. The commodities rally will be a story of a “roaring 20s” post-pandemic economic recovery as well as ultra-loose monetary and fiscal policies, JPMorgan analysts led by Marko Kolanovic said Feb. 10.Commodities may also jump as an unintended consequence of the fight against climate change, which threatens to constrain oil supplies while boosting demand for metals needed to build renewable energy infrastructure and manufacture batteries and electric vehicles, they said.Copper is surging amid a broad rally in metals from iron ore to nickel. The bellwether industrial commodity has doubled since a nadir in March, also boosted by rapidly tightening physical markets and prospects for rebounding economic growth.“The mega-trends that we see playing out around global population growth, the electrification thematic and the energy transition, all of these bode well for commodity demand over the medium-to-long term,” Mike Henry, the chief executive officer of mining giant BHP Group, said last week in a Bloomberg Television interview.Commodities swings have huge impact on cost of living since they can encompass the price of fuels, power, food and construction projects. They also help shape terms of trade, exchange rates and ultimately the politics of commodity-dependent nations like Canada, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.(Updates with prices in fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
