Mitr Phol inks china contract

The Mitr Phol Group has reached a preliminary agreement with the Chongzuo Administration Organisation to build a refined sugar mill and biofertiliser plant for a combined 1 billion yuan (Bt4.6 billion).

"The Mitr Phol Group's share of the Chinese market will increase to 9 per cent, making it the No-2 sugar manufacturer there," Pairoj Arunpairojana, managing director for China, said yesterday.

Both the mill and plant are 100 per cent owned by East Asia Sugar Ningming, an affiliate of the Mitr Phol Group, he said.

When the refined sugar mill starts crushing late this year, it will boost the company's Chinese production capacity to 75,000 tonnes of cane per day from 71,000 tonnes currently.

The 900-million-yuan mill and 100-million-yuan factory are being launched under the "50th Anniversary Gift of Guangxi County" theme, as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Guangxi Autonomous County. Today Guangxi houses five of the group's sugar mills.

The first phase of production will focus on raw sugar with an anticipated crushing capacity of 6,000 tonnes of cane per day and expected production capacity of 780 tonnes of raw sugar per day.

The second phase will see production capacity increase to 10,000 tonnes of cane per day and include the processing of raw sugar into refined sugar with a daily output of 1,300 tonnes.

The biofertiliser plant will use waste from the company's sugar production and micro-organisms as its core inputs.

Guangxi is China's prime area for sugar with a production of 9 million tonnes of cane per year. China's per capita annual demand for sugar has risen from 5 kilograms in 1993 to 10kg today, but is still far behind other nations in Asia, particularly Thailand with 25kg, Pairoj said.

The Chinese sugar market has vast potential to grow and presents a good opportunity for the group to broaden its sugar production from raw to refined sugar.

"About 80 per cent of the total sugar processed by Mitr Phol Group will be supplied to industrial users, our core market segment, driving Mitr Phol Group to be the first sugar producer in China to produce refined sugar directly made from crushed cane," Pairoj added.