China to auction 200,000 tons of sugar to lower prices

A source with the Ministry of Commerce said that China plans to auction 200,000 tons of state reserved sugar in a bid to lower the rocketing sugar prices, the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

The move aims to reinforce the sugar supply in the domestic market and dampen speculation, said a circular jointly issued by the State Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday.

The report said 100,000 tons of sugar will be auctioned first and the rest will be auctioned of accordingly, based on market reactions.

According to the ministry's Marketing Operation Supervision Department, sugar prices in China's main sugar-producing and sugar-consuming areas rose by 60 percent, or 1,000 yuan, in November compared with the same period of last year.

On Tuesday, sugar prices in Changchun, the capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, hit 4,800 yuan per ton, the highest in the country.

Even in Nanning, the capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which produces half of the country's total, the prices reached 4,350 yuan per ton.

Source: Xinhua