THE CUBA RE V I E W 



Sugar Review 



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



Our Fast report was dated August 23, 1923, and the quotation of 4c. c. & f. 

 mentioned therein appears to have been the low point touched during the period. Shortly 

 after August 23d, the market began to gain slowly in strength and, as final figures were 

 received from Cuba, fixing the outturn of the past crop at 3,602,910 tons, which settled 

 all arguments as to the size of the Cuba crop, it was then realized that the supply of 

 sugar available for United States refiners was not any too ample and as refiners 

 commenced to realize this but slowly, the early advances were small. In the meantime, 

 refined buyers were acting the same as raw buyers, in that they were only purchasing 

 the smallest quantities available and, as usually happens in such a situation, practically 

 all buyers of refined began to run out of supplies at once. This necessitated a large 

 increase in the buying of refined sugar with the result that the congestion in orders 

 became so bad that most of our refiners became oversold. Of course, with this demand 

 for refined sugar, our refiners had to enter the market for raws and, as mentioned above, 

 the supplies offered being comparatively light, the market turned upward sharply, with 

 all refiners urgent buyers of raws. 



Naturally, on account of the urgent demand for refined sugar, refiners tried to 

 obtain as prompt shipments as possible and most of the business during this period was 

 confined to sugars that could arrive promptly. In fact, at one time, there was ^^c. a 

 pound difference between sugars actually in port and those that could arrive 15 to 30 

 days later. When the raw market advanced, it stimulated increased purchasing on the 

 part o-f refined buyers and this again induced refiners to enter the raw market and get 

 supplies. However, owing to the small stocks our refiners were carrying, they ha\-e 

 had difficulty in increasing these supplies, owing to the fact that as fast as they bought 

 raw sugars, orders came in for refined. 



In the early part of September the market touched Ay2C. and about a week later 

 5c. c. & f. This cent a pound advance from the low point of 4c., mentioned in the 

 previous article, apparently did not check the demand, as the market rapidly went 

 up from the 5c. c. & f. level to SYzC. for prompt sugars and 5^c. c. & f. for October 

 shipment. The reason, in this latter instance, that October shipment sugars sold above 

 the prompt position was because there were no prompt sugars available, otherwise 

 5^c. c. & f. could be readily obtained. 



In the United Kingdom the same situation obtained as here. Both refiners and 

 refined sugar buyers kept out of the market until the last minute, when sharp advances 

 and increased activity took place. 



During the period of this review, the earthquake disaster occurred in Japan and for 

 a time this somewhat excited the market, as there was a possibility that practically 

 the entire sugar industry in Japan had been destroyed, or else so badly damaged as 

 to cause that country to go to other places for supplies. It seems, however, that the 

 damage to the sugar industry only applied to three refineries in the Yokohama and 

 Tokyo districts and, in this connection, we attach an article herewith in regard to 

 conditions in that country: 



Japan. — We are in receipt of a special cable from Kobe, Japan, dated September 

 23, 1923, reporting that while no official figures are given, the most reliable information 

 states that on August 31, 1923, there was in Japan proper a stock of 2.170,000 picols 

 of which 1,200,000 picols were completely destroyed by the earthquake. Part of 

 the raw stocks held by some of the refineries, totaling 165,000 picols, was not damaged. 

 The following factories were either completely destroyed or very badly damaged : Taisho 

 Seito, with melting capacity of 100 tons per day; Dainippon, melting capacity 180 

 tons per day; Meiji with melting capacity of 180 tons per day. These factories total 

 460 tons a day, against Japan's total melting capacity of 1,812 tons per day. The first 



