A senior Brazil sugar industry official rejected the notion that the country's congested ports needed to expand capacity to better handle export surges, saying current conditions were a one-time anomaly.

Unprecedented queues of vessels have developed outside the main ports of the world's biggest sugar exporter, triggering a renewed rally in prices this summer.

The main ports handling the sweetener, Santos and Paranagua, say their bulk loaders which work in pairs and pour 3,000 tonnes an hour into the ships' holds, cope well in normal years when exports are more evenly spread out over the year.

They said they cannot justify investing in additional terminals that would be likely to see little use when demand was more evenly spread out.

But the rush this year has led to a queue that reached 124 ships, more than twice what was waiting around this time last year, and means waits of around a month for ships to load, adding thousands to the charterers' vessel hire costs.

Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, technical director at Unica, Brazil's cane industry association told Reuters he agreed with the ports, despite the restrictions the movement of sugar was placing on the mills.

"I think (capacity) is within the norm. You can't prepare for the one-off situation ... No country in the world has this capacity that Brazil has," he said.

"If the market grows and Brazil's exports grow then of course more investments will be needed. I think give the size of the market there is no need," he added.

Appetite for sugar from Asia, Africa and North America has led to a long ship line-up at ports in Brazil, which provides at least 80 percent of the world's sugar at the peak of its harvest in the center-south in the July-September period.

Seasonal demand from the Muslim holy month Ramadan which expected to begin around Aug. 11, also contributed.

Sugar Rush
Sugar exports from Brazil reached a new record level in July at 2.9 million tons, well above the previous record of 2.55 million tonnes set in September last year -- so sugar is moving fast yet still not as fast as buyers would like.

New York and London sugar futures contracts have been gaining support from the squeeze on supplies caused by the delays, despite a downward trajectory for most of this week.

New York's key October raw sugar contract eased 0.05 cent to close at 18.24 cents per lb, the lowest settlement close since mid-July. London's October white sugar contract fell $5.40 to end at $539.80 a ton.

Rodrigues said the mills had so far been spared severe knock-on effects of the waits at the ports, and storage capacity and trucking services were not being choked up as a result of the jam at the docks.

"The only consequence for the producer is that he has product available and it could have been sold already and brought him more cash flow," Rodrigues said, adding mills had high outgoings at this time of year to pay for harvesting and transport.

"You produce in six months and sell over 12," he said.

Despite the stampede for sugar, which is expected to taper off as the cane harvest slows around October, all sectors using the ports, including the sugar industry, concur there are urgent problems to resolve at the country's docks.

Their shallow draught, even at Santos, the largest port in South America, limits the size of ships that can gain access and means larger vessels cannot carry a full load out of the port without the risk of running aground.

The government is investing 1.5 billion reais ($850 million) in a dredging programme for some of the country's more than 30 ports that should enable Santos to accommodate larger vessels towards the end of this year.

Separately, Rodrigues said he was encouraged by the interest in the new, locally-traded hydrate ethanol futures contract at the BM&FBovespa exchange in Sao Paulo, which was launched in May.

"It's gaining momentum. There are 1,500 contracts for 30 cubic meters ... Companies are getting to know about it. Even if there are not big volu