Performance at Lautoka, Labasa Mills major worry

[posted 6 Nov 2009,1200]

The Labasa Mill is crushing at about 50% capacity while performance at the Lautoka Mill continues to be highly inconsistent.

Figures for the week ending Monday 2nd November show that Labasa crushed only 25,828 tonnes of cane for the week – compared to FSC’s weekly target of 40-45,000 tonnes for the mill.

The mill is closed today as a result of a breakdown. Meanwhile, the Qauai River continues to be blackened and polluted by the dumping of huge quantities of cane juice that the mill is unable to convert to sugar.

Lautoka crushed only 28,621 tonnes – some 5000 tonnes short of FSC’s target for the mill of 33,000 tonnes for the week. Mill performance this week is expected to be much worse due to malfunctioning.

Performance at Rarawai Mill has shown a little improvement with 28,412 tonnes of cane crushed for the week just ended. But this is still barely two-thirds of capacity.

The Penang Mill has closed down for the season having crushed a total of 219,000 tonnes of cane. Of this some 38,000 tonnes were from the Rarawai mill area.