..with High demand for Biofuel and King Sugar Prices

[UML]

Govt pulls plug on sugar company
Ariti Jankie South Bureau
Wednesday, March 24th 2010

Seven years after the State pulled the plug on the sugarcane industry, the Government has ordered the shutdown of operations of the Sugar Manufacturing Company Ltd.

The company will close effective April 30.

No public announcement has been made of the closure, but the reasons given were the outdated level of technology, limited production capacity and the ’structure of the company’.

The company, which refined raw sugar into the ’white’ crystal form, was not viable, it was concluded.

Production at the plant at Usine Ste Madeleine stopped some months ago, and workers were laid off with the assurance they would be re-employed when raw material was sourced.

Those 200 workers now face the breadline.

The sugar refining company was set up following the closure of Caroni (1975) Ltd in 2003 to refine raw sugar from Guyana and Colombia.

SMCL employed 24 workers while over 180 were employed by contractors to operate the refinery.

The All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union has condemned the pending closure, and is demanding that government give reasons.

Union president Rudranath Indarsingh said that up to last year the refinery made a profit.

’SMCL can continue to realise a positive financial return,’ he said.

He called on the Government to clear the air on the supply of refined sugar to the manufacturing sector and its implications for a possible increase in the price of goods produced by the manufacturing sector.

Indarsingh said the decision to discontinue the industry was a continuation of the Government’s anti-union and anti-worker policy.

’Taking into consideration that the ATGWTU filed an application before the Registration, Recognition and Certification Board (RRCB) to become a recognised majority union, we feel that the closure is part of an anti-worker/anti-union policy,’ he said.

He called on the management of the contracting firms of Technical and Maintenance Company Ltd and RB Engineering Services Ltd to settle all liabilities legally due to their employees.

A company official said the instruction to close the company came without discussion with management.

’We were simply instructed to bring to a close all works at the company with a deadline on April 30,’ the official said.

The refinery was the only one of its kind in the Caribbean. It was built in 1970.

The official said the closure means the country will depend solely on imported sugar, and this will increase prices of a number of sugar-based consumer goods.

[duchess]

So.............it making a profit and they have the bright idea of shutting it down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So if they're shutting it down due to outdated equipment and all that then why in Gods name don't the government ijust upgrade the factory instead of spend billions to do a set of rubbish.

For once can't common sence prevail and they do something that would benefit the country.

[duchess]

Shucks foget the common sense comment.............for a second i forgot whot he PM was



no sense there what so ever

[devrat]

We are too developed for any form of menial industry (agriculture)...need agricultural land to build skyscrapers etc a true indication of 1st world status

[UML]

like everything else...dey can spoil vomit

real high-handedness and lies


easier to build houses and building than seek the interest of the country by making it profitable

all the reasons given for closure are as a result of the lack of interest/determination failures of the current administration to address them

dey always destroying fertile agricultural land to build houses and on the other hand trying to develop superfarms to lower food prices....all this concrete affects the penetration of water into the soil (this also goes for owners of houses with yards fully covered with concrete) resulting in flooding and negatively affecting our environment and water tables...their failure to address agriculture and profit making companies and promote CEPEP and all their other deal-making waste of taxpayers money programmes would force us to eat concrete!!!

[Mr Gear]

Those 200 workers now face the breadline.[/quote]

These writers need to update their writing style and jargon.

Can anyone provide us with the address/location of this bread line ? Where is it ? When last was it in operation... perhaps not since WWII.

In an age of gmail, google and twitter you would thing that those old world cliched metaphors and phrases would have either been updated or phased out.

ok... my rant is over.

[Jon Gill]

That incorruptible Gunta will pay for it. He already going down hated like George Chambers by everyone. He too kiss me ass vindictive.

Some one should put the last batch of sugar from SMCL up his a ss with some ghee & light it afire. Film it for future generations to see.

[Chemical]

[jhonnieblue]