Buriram Sugar Aims for 3 Million Tons in 2019, Finding Venture Partners for 2 New Factories
Buriram Sugar aims to mill 3.15 million tons of raw sugar this year to supply 3 biomass power plants and packaging industry with bagasse, and find joint venture partners to establish two additional sugar factories.
Mr. Anant Tangtongwechakit, the executive board president and managing director of Buriram Sugar Public Co., Ltd. (BRR) stated that the first half of the year saw the total income of 3,582.68 million baht and 287.86 million baht in net revenue, as the current sugar price increases to 12-13 cents per pound from the lowest price in August 2018 of 9-10 cents per pound. The price is expected to stabilize until 2019.
The company has set the production goal for the next year at 3.15 million tons or 12.50 tons per rai from the total plantation area of 240,000 rai, similar to the current year. It is expected that bagasse from the mill would be adequate for a biomass power plant and a bagasse packaging factory coming online in the first quarter of 2019.
The amount of raw sugar in 2016/2017 was 2.25 million tons from 200,000 rai of plantation, with the total output of 378,800 tons, of which 50,000-60,000 tons were sold domestically and affected by the price drop.
In addition, the company had invested 400 million baht in a white sugar refinery that has capacity of 1,000 tons/day and was estimated to be operational by the first quarter of 2019. The expected increase in revenue for the company is 20-30 USD/ton.
Mr. Anan continued that the company is currently looking for partners for investment in 2 new sugar refineries in Surin Province and Chamni district, Buriram Province, with production capacity of 20,000 tons/day. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is currently ongoing for the Buriram project, while in Surin Province farmers are encouraged to plant sugarcanes.
Turnover of the latter half of 2019 will improve over the first half revenue of 3.58 billion baht and 287 million baht in net revenue, as the raw sugar price recovers from the lowest price of 10 cent/pound, significantly lower than the previous year’s lowest price of 20 cent/pound. Currently, the world raw sugar price increases a little to 12-13 cent/pound.
