36 T H E C U B A REVIEW 



Sugar Review 



specially written for THE CUBA REVIEW by Willett &■ Gray, New York, N. Y. 



Our last report was dated July 24, 1923, and since that time the market has been 

 disappointing, from the sellers' point of view. Continued liquidation brought Cubas down 

 to 4J/2C. c. & f. at the end of July, and later to 4j4c. in the early part of August. This 

 severe decline from July 24th, when sugars were quoted at S^^c. c. & f., interested buyer? 

 considerably and a good buying movement set in at this figure. There were very little 

 sugars obtainable, however, and prices quickly advanced to 4^c. c. & f. but a very 

 dull refined sugar market, with practically no demand being experienced by refiners, caused 

 them to withdraw as buyers, and since the 43/^c. c. & f. quotation of August 6th, the 

 market slowly declined until the price of 4c. c. & f. was reached on the 16th of August. 

 The decline for the month can be directly attributed to the poor demand for refined 

 sugar and the extreme competition of refiners for the sale of their refined product. 

 There has been no demand for export and, hence, refiners had to sell their sugars to the 

 United States only, and as all of the refiners had very large stocks of refined, the 

 competition has been very keen. 



The markets in the United Kingdom have been very similar to those here. They 

 have had occasional periods of steadiness with improvement in prices, but cable advices 

 from Java reporting very heavy shipments of Java sugars to the Continent of Europe 

 during June and July had a tendency to disturb market conditions in the U. K. very 

 materially. There were several important cuts in prices, as the refiners had to meet 

 the competition not only of these White sugars, but also the competition of American 

 refined, which has been in store in the United Kingdom for some months. Lately, 

 however, there has been a better demand for Java White sugars and quite a number of 

 cargoes have been disposed of, not only to the U. K. markets but to the Continent as 

 well, and it is stated that some of the countries bordering on Russia also bought 15,000 

 tons of these White Javas. All these transactions appeared to give a better tone to the 

 U. K. sugar situation but, rather strangely, the demand for refined sugars with the 

 English refiners appears to be confined to delayed deliveries, particularly for second 

 half of September, while prompt sugars are neglected. 



Cable advices from the beet growing sections of Europe report decidedly improved 

 weather conditions, with the crop catching up the extreme backwardness previously, 

 due to the cold wet Spring. 



United States and United Kingdom. — Owing to the large shipments of Java Sugars 

 to the United Kingdom as reported by our cables there is a general opinion throughout 

 this country that the U. K. has secured sugars far in excess of their requirements. We 

 have been looking into this subject somewhat, particularly as regards the United King- 

 dom, and obtaining opinions from well posted sugar concerns of the U. K. We have 

 come to the conclusion that the statistical position of the United Kingdom is similar to 

 that obtaining here. This, of course, refers to the statistical positions entirely, and 

 the conclusions are based on this standpoint. The stock of sugar in the United Kingdom 

 on June 1, 1922, was 335,000 tons, while on June 1, 1923, it was 340,000 tons, or ap- 

 proximately the same. The consumption for the last 6 months of 1922 of the United 

 Kingdom was 1,125,000 tons. A calculation of supply and demand for the last 6 months 

 of 1923 for the U. K. can be stated approximately as follows: Stock June 1, 1923, 

 340,000 tons, estimated receipts from all quarters from June 1, 1923, to December 31, 

 1923, 800,000 tons; a total supply of 1,140,000. A home consumption estimated at 

 980,000 tons would only leave a stock on hand to December 31, 1923, of 160,000 tons of 

 sugar. The receipts of about 800,000 tons noted above include Java, Europe, Peru and 

 Brazil, the British West Indies, etc., and some Cuban raw and American Granulated. 

 The opinion has been expressed here that the United Kingdom would not need any 

 further Cuban raws or American Granulated, but from a statistical standpoint this does 

 not seem reasonable to expect. 



