China to Auction Reserve SugarsChina plans to sell its reserve sugars at an auction on the Beijing sugar market from August 18 to push down domestic surging sugar price, Chinadaily reported Thursday.An official from the State Development Planning Commission confirmed that 100,000 tons of white sugar and 300,000 tons of raw sugar are to be sold at the first stage. The reserve sugars to be auctioned include raw sugar, which was imported in 1994, 1995 and 1996, white sugar and fine white sugar. All domestic enterprises, foreign trade companies and individuals, with registered capital over 5 million yuan (US$602,000), can apply for membership at the transaction market, and join the auction biddings. The official said that the move is designed to ease China's shortage of sugar supplies caused by frost strikes in sugar production bases in South China last winter and reduced plantation of sugar crops this year. According to statistics, the price of granulated sugar has reached 4,000 yuan (US$481.9) per ton in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the largest sugar producer in China, from around 3,000 yuan (US$361.35) at the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, an official from the China Sugar Industry Association affirmed that despite the expected shortage of one million tons of sugar on the domestic market, China does not need to import sugar this year. He hopes the sales of state reserves will push the prices down to around 3,500 yuan (US$421.7) per ton, the current price level on the world market. China closed down 149 small sugar refineries last year and reduced the area of sugar crops by 200,000 hectares this year to cut redundant sugar production capacity and improve the profitability of sugar companies. |
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