Sugar output still dismal, Skeldon far below target
Posted By Pushpa Balgobin On October 27, 2014 @ 5:30 am In Local News | No Comments
With its sugar output continuing to be far below expectation, the Skeldon sugar factory is preparing for the conversion of the current hydraulic dump system to an electric winch system which will help it get closer to its 350 tonnes per hour crushing potential originally promised under the China National Tech-nical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC) construction contract.
When Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) officials appeared before the National Assembly’s Economic Services Com-mittee recently, Technical Services Manager Yusuf Abdul had noted that to fix the ill-performing punt dump could cost US$4 million. Significant controversy has surrounded this figure as the rehabilitation of the punt dump was one of six projects that was supposed to be done by the South African firm Bosch Engineering.
Stabroek News had been reliably informed that the cost of the Bosch rehabilitation would be approximately US$30 million. However, in March, GuySuCo refuted this figure and said the total repairs cost US$1.8 million.
The US$110 million Skeldon sugar factory has consistently given problems since it was commissioned in 2009. More money was subsequently spent to help realize the full potential of the factory, the lynchpin of the Skeldon Sugar Moderniza-tion Project (SSMP). Five years later, it is still nowhere near delivering on its projected target of 110,000 tonnes of sugar per annum.
In addition to the conversion of the hydraulic dump to a winch-based system which was being pushed by factory management up to last August when Stabroek News visited the estate, Skeldon is also considering bringing the feeding system from the old factory into the new factory. This publication was made to understand that local contractors who were solicited for the job estimated that it could cost up to $40 million or more to bring over the components.
