Wilmar Sugar Plane Creek Mill crushes expectations in sugar production

Wilmar Sugar’s overall production fell short of general estimations but there was one mill to emerge as a shining star that crushed expectations. Read why.

Wilmar Sugar has ended the crushing season with a whopping two million tonnes of raw sugar produced for 2021, with one mill in particular crushing expectations.

The company’s season came to an end with Sarina’s Plane Creek Mill processing the last of its cane shortly after 10.30pm Sunday, with the final raw sugar produced on Tuesday afternoon.

While the company recorded a mammoth 14.6 million tonnes of cane crushed for the season, it still fell short of its total production from 2020 which clocked in at 14.925 million tonnes.

A Wilmar Sugar spokeswoman said the Herbert region took a hefty toll from the weather at the beginning of the season with some crops never recovering.

Plane Creek Mill’s Raistlin Seage, Georgia Nilon and Thomas Mactaggart watched the last bin tip for the Wilmar group in 2021. Picture: Contributed

The Herbert region is home to two of Wilmar Sugar’s eight mills, with four more located in the Burdekin, one in Proserpine and the southernmost in Sarina.

“Leading into January it was extremely dry [in Herbert], and that was followed by four floods in the first three months of the year,” the spokeswoman said.

“We originally estimated the Herbert crop to come in at 4.2 million tonnes, but we got 3.8 million.

“That’s a decent drop.”

But there was one standout performer for the year — Sarina’s Plane Creek Mill.

The spokeswoman said the mill was estimated to produce 1.3 million tonnes for 2021.

“Plane Creek had a good growing season, so the crop grew on from the original estimate and we ended up with 1.37 million tonnes,” she said.

Wilmar Sugar’s General Manager Operations Mike McLeod said employees across the regions were now preparing for a big maintenance season works program.

The major focus would be on “evaporators, pan vessels and boilers” with more than $187m being spent on maintenance and capital replacement projects in 2022.

“Wilmar is maintaining a high level of investment in its mills and cane supply network,” Mr McLeod said.

“In the lead-up to the 2022 crush, we’ll be installing a new pan vessel at Macknade Mill in Ingham and the first of four evaporators at Kalamia Mill in the Burdekin.”

“We’ll also be spending $4.6m on upgrades to the air heater on Proserpine Mill’s No. 3 boiler, and $1.5m on Inkerman Mill’s boiler station, ahead of a complete replacement of the Inkerman’s No. 1 boiler furnace in 2023 at a cost of $10.3m.”

Canegrowers Mackay Chairman Kevin Borg said Mackay Sugar was expecting to finish its season late between December 27 and 30.

“It isn’t optimal, all growers would generally like to have their cane crushed in the first two weeks of November,” Mr Borg said.

“[They will] be crushing right through Christmas.”