Friday, October 28, 2011

As Bunge Flails it Flags Sugar and China Oilseed Hopes (BG)

The stock is up 80 cents (1.29%) at $62.88. I keep thinking this would be a way for Soros-backed Gavilon to pick up some decent assets on the cheap.

From Agrimoney:

Bunge struck positive notes on sugar prices, and China's hunger for oilseeds, even as it unveiled a sharp drop in profits, depressed by setbacks from a poor cane crop to "aggressive competition" in vegetable oils.

The US agribusiness giant said that Chinese oilseed crushing margins, having improved from levels depressed by state controls on cooking oil prices, "should remain supported" by growth in demand for vegetable meal, an important feed source.
China's soymeal demand will soar 10% in 2011-12, to 47.6m tonnes, to keep the country's expanding hog herd fed, on US Department of Agriculture estimates.
And Bunge backed its case for expanding in Brazilian cane, despite another disappointing quarterly result, saying that prices of sugar and ethanol "should remain supported by strong demand, tight ethanol supplies in Brazil and the need to encourage Brazilian capacity expansion".
Indeed, strong prices were needed to encourage investment in Brazil's important Center South cane region, whose first fall in cane output this year in a decade has fuelled a recovery in sugar prices from a May low.
Brazil downgrade 
Bunge cut production prospects for its own Brazil sugar operations this year by a further 1m tonnes, to 14m-14.5m tonnes, following a similar downgrade in July....MORE

Here's the recent price action via BigCharts: