Cane crush to date remains higher than 2019

As of Monday, July 27, a total of 359,757 tonnes of cane has been crushed by the three Fiji Sugar Corporation sugar mills which continue in full operation. This compares to an equivalent tonnage of 284,356 tonnes crushed in 2019 – an increase of 27 per cent year on year.

Nationally, mill performance continues to consolidate, with operating time efficiency 23 per cent higher than last year and average weekly mill stoppages 35 per cent lower.

Sugar production of 28,996 tonnes to date is 15 per cent above the equivalent period in 2019 (25,303 tonnes). Sugar recoveries are improving with tonnes cane to sugar ratio (TCTS) improving to 12.4 to date, compared to 13.0 recorded last week.

Loading of the first bulk sugar export for 2020 is currently in progress. A total of 30,000 tonnes of sugar will be shipped to the UK/EU market on this vessel. Loading of 17,000 tonnes has been completed from Labasa and the balance of 13,000 tonnes to complete the shipment is currently being loaded from the Lautoka bulk terminal. A further four shipments to the EUUK/ are planned for the balance of the year, together with one shipment in August 2020 to the USA. This will total around 165,000 tonnes of bulk sugar for export in 2020.

Lautoka Mill

The Lautoka Mill has been crushing for three weeks and continues to consolidate. A total of 47,765 tonnes of cane has been crushed to date. Throughput at Lautoka was affected by rain early in the week which resulted in an 11.0hrs stop. Accordingly throughput was slightly less than the budgeted weekly target, but cane crushed improved by around 59% compared to the previous week and around 5.4 per cent more than the same period last year. The Mill crushed 27,053 tonnes of cane with inside stoppages further reduced to 6.8hrs for the week. A total of 2,248 tonnes of sugar was produced with a TCTS of 12.0 units for the week. The Mill stopped for 24.5 hrs on Sunday to carry out normal maintenance and resumed operation at 3am on Monday morning. Burnt cane has increased to 6.9 per cent from the 5.8 per cent last week.

Rarawai Mill

The Rarawai Mill has now been crushing for five weeks and has processed 129,720 tonnes of cane. The mill had issues with their injection water pumps early in the week which was immediately addressed by the Mill team. Mill throughput later picked up during the week. The mill crushed 32,426 tonnes of cane for the week.

This was 17.5 per cent more than the budgeted target and was the highest for the same period in the last three years.

The factory produced 2,814 tonnes of sugar recording a TCTS ratio of 11.5 units. Inside stops were further reduced to 5.6 hours from 34.3 hrs in the past week. The factory stopped for 27.5hrs on Sunday to do cleaning and normal maintenance work and resumed operation at 8am Monday morning. Burnt cane is on an increasing trend at 8.4 per cent from 3.8 per cent recorded last week

Labasa Mill

The Labasa Mill continues to perform very well, having crushed 182,272 tonnes of cane in seven weeks of operation. Rain around the Labasa cane districts led to a 11.5 hrs stop early in the week.

However, the mill picked up throughput and crushed 34,083 tonnes of cane for the week.

This is slightly lower than the previous weeks’ crush yet more than the budgeted target of 27,750 tonnes for the week.

Cane crushed was 10 per cent more than for the same period last year. The Mill produced 3,453 tonnes of sugar with a TCTS of 9.9 units. Labasa Mill also put on line their 10MW generating plant in the middle of the week to boost power exports to EFL.

Labasa took a 22.7hrs planned shut down on Sunday to do maintenance work and commenced crushing at 6am on Monday morning. Factory inside stoppages further reduced to 1.8hrs in comparison to 4.8hrs inside stoppages recorded last week. Burnt cane remained low at 2.6 per cent.

Fiji Sugar Corporation