SAO PAULO, July 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's sugar line-up, or

the amount of the sweetener to be loaded at local ports, plunged

in July to the lowest in at least five years, as mills refrain

from sugar export business amid declining global prices.

    According to shipping agency Williams, only 745,000 tonnes

of sugar would be loaded to ships at Brazilian ports around

July, 28% less than in the same period last year, when local

production had already been reduced.

    The volume is 63% smaller than in July 2017, a more normal

year in terms of Brazilian production (see table below).

    At sheds 20 and 21, operated by the world's largest sugar

merchant, Copersucar SA, two ships will load 130,000 tonnes of

soybeans. In the terminal operated by Rumo, a

logistics company controlled by Cosan, which owns 50%

of No. 1 sugar producer Raízen, 10 vessels are expected to load

corn.

    "Global sugar demand didn't fall, it even increased a bit,"

said Julio Maria Borges, a sugar and ethanol consultant at JOB

Economia. "But there is a lot of competition out there. Brazil

mills would have to sell very cheap to make volume, and they

don't wanna do that", he said.

    While raw sugar prices remain near a 10-year low in New

York, the Brazilian currency gained almost 10% against

the dollar since May, as a crucial pension reform passed a first

test in Congress. That further reduced the incentive to export

sugar, Borges said.

    "Many mills continue to focus on ethanol, which generates

quick cash," said João Paulo Botelho, a sugar and ethanol

analyst at broker INTL FCStone. "They will wait for better

prices to make and export sugar," he said.

    Expectations for a higher sugar production mix in the

current Brazilian center-south cane crop did not materialize.

Production mix, or the cane allocation between sugar and ethanol

at plants, remains very similar to last year when mills

earmarked 36% of cane to sugar production, a record-low amount,

with all the rest going to ethanol.

    According to cane industry group Unica, cane allocation for

sugar so far in the season was at only 34.7%.    

    BRAZIL SUGAR LINEUP - MID JULY      

 YEAR        TONNES

 2019        745,000

 2018        1,040,000

 2017        2,027,000

 2016        1,511,000

 2015        1,550,000

  Source: Shipping agency Williams