April 14 - The Imperial Sugar Company has announced that it expects to resume granulated bulk sugar production at is Port Wentworth plant in Texas in late May, some 15 months after the refinery suffered extensive damage in an explosion which killed 13 people.
The company, which was fined more than US$5 million by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for safety violations over the incident last year, also forecast it would complete restoration of packing facilities at the factory by autumn 2009.
In a statement, the company said that up until March 31 it had spent US$54 million of the estimated US$200-220 million construction costs.
The sugar and sweetener giant also gave further details of financing for the project detailing that its property insurance policy would provide coverage for construction replacement cost, as well as business interruption and certain payroll and other costs.
It added it had received an additional US$35 million advance under the property insurance policy in March 2009 and that advances, which totalled $160 million to date, were not identified with any specific coverage under the policy.
The Company also reported that as of March 31, 2009, it had cash balances of $79 million and available, undrawn revolving credit capacity of $55 million, after deducting $30 million of outstanding borrowings under that facility.
John Sheptor, Imperial’s President and CEO, said: “The rebuild project continues to progress nicely and we are on track to begin bulk sugar production in late May. Our employees are enthusiastic about the project and we are working closely with our customers and suppliers to coordinate the restart of the refinery. Discussions with representatives of our insurance companies continue productively, and an additional $35 million of advances were received in March.”