Shipment delays from Vietnam contributed to a $15 a tonne rise in the London robusta May contract  on Monday, after the market hit contract lows just a week ago. 
   "Defaults are taking place at many levels," said a Vietnamese trader at a foreign trading house in the coffee-growing province of Daklak. "Even several major companies will soon fall."
   With prices down 23 percent in the past 12 months and off 5 percent this year alone, exporters face certain losses if they sell now, causing many to default as they struggle to repay bank loans, even with stockpiles of beans in warehouses.
   At its close on Monday of $1,273 a tonne, the May contract has lost nearly 5 percent this year and plunged 20 percent from a contract high of $1,605 a tonne hit last August.
   Many buying agents in Daklak, who supply coffee to exporters, have fled their property after prices fell and they could not repay farmers, who had deposited coffee with them, the provincial government-run Daklak newspaper said on Tuesday.
   "In the current situation with coffee price falls, the risk of a chain default as agents run away is inevitable," the daily said in a rare report on the potential problems in the province.
   Daklak in the Central Highlands coffee belt produces about a third of Vietnam's total output, which traders estimated at 18 million 60-kg bags, or 1.08 million tonnes, according to a Reuters poll on Jan. 29. 
     
Tuesday, 23 March 2010 14:27:26