Mill operations continue to deteriorate badly

[Posted 24 Sept 2009, 11.00]

The latest crush figures, for the week ending Monday 21 September, indicate the performance of all four sugar mills were down, getting from bad to worse.

The sugar mills crushed a total of 62,000 tonnes cane for the week – with capacity declining to a mere 48%. All four mills were plagued with breakdowns and malfunctioning.

Industry figures for the week are as follows:

Lautoka ………. 19,000 tonnes
Rarawai………… 16,000 tonnes
Labasa ………….22,000 tonnes
Penang………….  5000  tonnes

Data for sugar manufactured is still being withheld. With more than half the season gone, FSC has crushed just over 1 million tonnes of cane – about 50% of its now revised target of 2.1million. Original targeted figure was 2.45 million tonnes.