March 29, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 25, 1424

KARACHI, March 28: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan issued a tender on Friday to sell 25,000 tons of white refined sugar from the government stocks, a senior TCP official said.

The official said the deadline for bids would be April 2 and they would be opened on the same day.

“This tender is specifically for exports to Afghanistan and Central Asian republics...we have also fixed a minimum bid price of $235 per ton and buyers would have to bid for a minimum of 5,000 tons,” he added.

It is the third sugar export tender issued by the TCP after a government decision in December to export at least 300,000 tons of refined sugar in 2003 to reduce surplus stocks.

The decision followed demands from the industry, which has blamed surplus stocks for low domestic prices.

The official said the TCP had extended bidding deadline of an earlier tender to sell 25,000 tons of sugar for one week. The tender was originally scheduled to open on March 29.

“Now the bids will be opened on April 5,” the official said.

The TCP sold 12,000 tons of refined sugar at $213 a ton FOB Karachi to two foreign buyers this month.

PURCHASE TENDER: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan on Friday opened tender for the purchase of sugar from mills.

General manager (exports) of the TCP, Ziauddin Ahmad, in a statement on Friday said the TCP had invited bids from the sugar mills for the purchase of 25,000 tons sugar for export. It was stated 41 offers were received from the sugar mills — 23 from Sindh and 18 from Punjab.

According to the statement, the lowest offer received from all the mills in the tender was Rs19,500 per ton. It said the tender evaluation committee of TCP will meet next week to consider the offers and take appropriate decision.—Reuters/APP