Sugar Manufacturing Industry Profile

Companies in this industry produce raw sugar from sugar cane, refine raw cane sugar, and produce refined beet sugar from sugar beets. Major companies include Amalgamated Sugar, American Crystal Sugar, Florida Crystals of Fanjul Corp, Imperial Sugar, and US Sugar (all based in the US); as well as Cosan and Copersucar (both in Brazil); Nippon Beet Sugar Manufacturing (Japan); Nordzucker and Südzucker (both in Germany); Royal Cosun (Netherlands); Tereos (France); and Tongaat Hulett (South Africa).

The world produces about 180 million metric tons of sugar annually, according to Statista. The US produces about 8 million metric tons of sugar annually. The largest producers are Brazil, India, China, Thailand and Pakistan.

The US sugar manufacturing industry consists of about 100 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $10 billion. Key growth opportunities include new packaging for products and commercial uses for byproducts.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by domestic sugar consumption and government controls on imports and pricing. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations and cost controls. Large companies have economies of scale in production and distribution. Small companies can compete effectively by serving local markets. The US industry is highly concentrated: the eight largest companies account for about 70% of industry revenue.

Sugar manufacturers compete with makers of lower-cost sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

The major product of sugar manufacturers is refined ...