Rehabilitation work on the Skeldon sugar factory is almost complete and it is grinding again, according to Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
It is now left to be seen if these works will lift the present dismal processing of 196 tonnes of cane per hour compared to its rated capacity of 350 tonnes and end the chronic problems experienced since being commissioned by its Chinese builder in 2009.
All six of the components that South African firm Bosch Engineering was contracted to do are either completed or are in the process of being completed, Ramsammy told Stabroek News yesterday adding that the factory started to grind again last week. He noted that some work is still ongoing but it is almost 100% completed. When asked about the cost of the work the minister said he could not give that figure off hand.
When questioned about whether any costs were levied against the China National Technology Import and the Export Corporation (CNTIC) which built the factory, Ramsammy said that the company had delivered what was in their contract. He said that the work being done by Bosch Engineering was not part of CNTIC’s contract and there were no defects that needed to be fixed. “They completed their work and this was additional work,” he said adding that CNTIC delivered what was in their contract.
According to Ramsammy, after the factory started working, it was realized there was need for some additional work to accommodate some of Guyana’s realities. CNTIC had a turnkey contract for the factory and critics say that apart from the numerous delays in the construction it should have delivered a facility capable of grinding 350 tonnes of cane per hour. There had been numerous criticisms of the choice of CNTIC as the builder. This was reportedly the first factory of this type that it had constructed.
Flagship
The US$200 million Skeldon factory was built by CNTIC as a flagship project aimed at boosting sugar production past the 300,000 tonnes mark per annum initially and going as high as 450,000 tonnes. It has, however, experienced major problems ever since it was commissioned in 2009.
In April last year, GuySuCo announced that the factory was set to undergo major rehabilitation in order to have it fully operational. This included the redesigning and re-engineering of several aspects of the facility, on which GuySuCo has been working with the Bosch Group of Companies.
GuySuCo, in a statement had said that working along with reputable international engineering experts and technical professionals in the area of diffusion technology as well as agricultural specialists, it had identified the major factors that are preventing the estate from reaching its full potential and design capacity.
According to GuySuCo, the projects identified at the factory included, re-engineering the bagasse feed system, redesigning the cane conveyers, drilling of a new well, the replacement of a 5MW alternator as well as the modification of the pump dumpers. Critics say that all of this re-designing suggests major errors in the initial planning of the factory, its design and supervision. Neither the government not GuySuCo has addressed these issues.
Last week, former sugar industry insider Anthony Vieira expressed concern at the dismal performances of all the sugar estates last year, particularly the Skeldon factory, and said that for GuySuCo to survive, more factories have to be closed or more efficient methods of delivering the cane to the factories must be developed.
He had said that the Skeldon factory still shows signs of being a very bad investment. “The factory has been literally throttled [as in strangled] down to grind at a rate of 196 tons cane an hour when in fact it was designed to operate efficiently at 350 tons an hour,” he had said adding that the effects of this are apparent in its performance as the tons of cane to make a ton of sugar in 2012 at Skeldon was 16.29 while at Albion, it only took 10.52 tons of cane to make a ton of sugar.
He had said that the mills, the power generation depending on bagasse, the vessels for boiling the juice etc. are underutilised operating at only around 56% of their rated capacity and this must have “a very substantial effect on the economics of running this costly and inefficient factory, and it is showing.” He had also pointed out that at Skeldon the amount of grinding time lost for mechanical reasons at the factory was 550.51 hours and this represented 25% of the total factory downtime in the entire industry.
Further, Vieira also noted that the total industry production for last year was 218,069 tons, which he said was the lowest in over two decades. “The production of the Skeldon factory was a total of 33,309 tons of sugar. Albion for example produced 54,022 tons. By this time, according to all of GuySuCo’s projections, Skeldon should be producing 100,000 tons of sugar. The disaster that is the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project (SSMP) continues and the time has come to ask if it is viable? At the very least a commission of enquiry should be set up to examine what has happened? And what is the way forward if in fact there is one,” he had said.
The former sugar executive declared that the losses of sugar at the Skeldon factory are frightening. “Sugar is haemorrhaging at this state-of-the-art factory in massive quantities, in the filter press mud 1.18% of the sugar is lost, the highest in the industry, Albion for example was 0.51%. In the molasses 17.49% is lost, again the highest in the industry, Albion for example is 9.40%. The undermined losses at Skeldon were 6.45%, again the highest in the industry, Albion for example was only 1.29%. The boiling house recovery was also unacceptably low. The boiling house efficiency was the lowest in the industry at 88.67% whilst Albion was 99.52%, and the industry average was 97.40%,” he said.
With regards to Vieira’s assertions, Ramsammy said yesterday that he did not want to comment. He said that his job is to “make these things work and it has been working.”
“I have to ensure that we get the optimal job. My job is to make sure that the factory attains the 2016 goals and that is what I am working towards. The factory demonstrated in 2012 that is capable,” the minister said while adding that the factory has demonstrated that it can handle the amount of cane needed to achieve the goal.
