67,913 TONNES OF CANE WERE CRUSHED AT ALL THREE MILLS LAST WEEK

Heavy rain was received across all areas of the cane belt on Saturday and Sunday last week.

All the three Fiji Sugar Corporation mills were affected and had to stop for low cane supply on Saturday 27th Sunday, July 28, 2019.

Notwithstanding this, for the last week a total of 67,913 tonnes of cane was crushed at all three mills, bringing the season to date crush total to 346,602 tonnes. Sugar made was 31,555 tonnes and TCTS (tonnes cane to tonnes sugar) improved to 10.9 for the season to date.

A statement from FSC said: “Lautoka mill completed its seventh week of operations, and ran well crushing 24,871 tonnes of cane for the week (83 per cent of budget), with 2,149 cane lorries offloaded at an average of 358 per day for the week.

“The mill experienced a conveyor breakdown on Monday 22nd July which was fixed and the mill restarted early on Tuesday 23rd July.

“On Friday, July 26 a replacement electric motor had to be installed on the main boiler feeder conveyor, resulting in a day shift stop. Otherwise no other major stoppages during the week, other than for rain on Saturday and Sunday.

“Rarawai mill completed its 3rd week of operations and continued to fine tune and consolidate the operations of their re-furbished boiler.

“The mill crushed 13,917 tonnes of cane for the week (65 per cent of budget), with 1,196 cane lorries offloaded at an average of 200 per day for the week.

“The major areas of attention on the Rarawai boiler are fuel feeding and ash disposal, and these were attended to via operating adjustments made on Thursday 25th July and Friday 26th July.

“Close attention continues to be given to the boiler operations and the mill resumed crushing at 6am on Monday 29th July after stopping for rain on Saturday and Sunday last week.

“Labasa mill completed its 7th week of operations and continues to run well, crushing 29,125 tonnes of cane for the week (10 per cent above budget), with 2,385 cane lorries offloaded at an average of 398 per day for the week.

“Heavy rain in Labasa stopped cane supply to the mill on Saturday and Sunday. No other major stoppages were experienced during the past week.

The mill resumed crushing at Midnight on Sunday 28th July .”