Crushing quota increases

For the period ending August 10, 2020, a total of 544,524 tonnes of cane had been crushed by the three Fiji Sugar Corporation sugar mills which continue to crush well.

This cumulative crush compares to an equivalent tonnage of 465,015 tonnes crushed in 2019 – an increase of 17 per cent year on year.

Nationally, mill performance remains good, with operating time efficiency 14 per cent higher than last year and average weekly mill stoppages 45 per cent lower.

Sugar production of 46,189 tonnes to date is five per cent above the equivalent period in 2019 (44,015 tonnes).

Sugar recoveries are improving, with tonnes cane to sugar ratio (TCTS) improving to 11.8 to date.

Preparations are in hand to load the next two bulk sugar cargos – 11,500 tonnes to the USA and 30,000 tonnes to Spain.

These two vessels are expected in the coming week and will load in rotation from the Malau and Lautoka terminals.

Lautoka Mill

Lautoka Mill crushed a total of 31,602 tonnes cane for the week.

This was 39 per cent more than their target figure and the highest for the same period over the past three years.

Lautoka Mill’s throughput was affected by rain early in the week but picked up well after that, and the mill crushed continuously during the week.

This is the first time this year that Lautoka has crushed above 30,000 tonnes for a week, and a consistent performance in the coming weeks is expected.

The factory had a scheduled stop on Sunday to do maintenance and other planned shutdown works.

Sugar production was 2611 tonnes with a TCTS of 12.1 for the week.

Improvement in cane quality was noticed compared to last week, but was still lower than in comparative periods, and an area of concern.

The per cent burnt cane has risen from seven per cent two weeks ago to 21.5 per cent, which is high for this early in the season.

Rarawai Mill

Rarawai mill crushed a total of 31,496 tonnes of cane for the week.

This was slightly less than in the past week, but 11.0 per cent more than the mill’s weekly target figure of 28,426 tonnes.

Mill throughput was disturbed early in the week due to rain and issues with the mill injection water pumps.

However, throughput picked up well from Thursday and into the weekend.

The mill took a short stop on Sunday to do normal maintenance and scheduled shut down works.

Rarawai mill throughput has been consistent in the past four weeks with weekly cane crushed continually above 30,000 tonnes cane.

This is helping to ensure that cane delays are controlled to mitigate against the low cane quality that is being experienced.

The mill produced 2873 tonnes of sugar for the week, recording a TCTS ratio of 11.0 units.

Lower than target

Cane quality is lower than the targeted figure, and is currently the lowest for the same period in the past three years.

The per cent burnt cane increase to 25 per cent compared to 15 per cent in the past week and eight per cent in the week prior.

Burnt cane volumes are a concern to sugar processing so early in the season.

Labasa Mill

Labasa Mill crushed 29,100 tonnes of cane for the week, which was lower than the mill target figure and also lower than last weeks’ cane throughput.

After a scheduled stop on Sunday, a heavy downpour across all the cane districts delayed mill start up, resulting in 45hours of downtime.

Throughput was also affected in mid week due to issues on the No.2 mill intermediate carrier and No.1 mill drive chains.

The factory took a scheduled stop on Sunday to address these issues and put the mills back into full operation.

Sugar production for the week was 2871 tonnes. Sugar production was affected by the stop-start nature of the operations compared to the past week, and should improve this coming week.

While the other two factories have a seen a gradual rise in cane quality over the previous week, the fluctuating cane quality at Labasa is a concern.

Cane purity is the lowest for the same period in the past three years.

However, burnt cane per cent crush remained low at 4.9 per cent for the week.