URC boosts milling capacity of Negros sugar plant

MANILA  -The Gokongwei family’s Universal Robina Corp. (URC) plans to scale up the milling capacity of its sugar mill in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental.

In a statement, URC president and CEO Irwin Lee said the listed company’s goal is to further expand the mill’s capacity to 14,000 tons per day from the current level of 12,000 tons per day.

The sugar mill is run by Southern Negros Development Corp. (Sonedco), its sugar and renewables subsidiary, which the listed firm acquired in the late 1980s. Initially, the mill’s capacity was pegged at 4,000 tons per day.

Over the years, the mill further raised its capacity and is currently processing up to 12,000 tons per day. Expansion efforts stretched Sonedco’s production to 15,000 bags of refined sugar per day.

The mill is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies from Japan, Thailand and India to improve efficiency and energy use.

It also started generating its own electricity after building a biomass-fired cogeneration plant that now provides 19 megawatts to the national grid using bagasse, a byproduct of sugar milling, as fuel.

Lee said there was still room to grow for Sonedco, adding, “I know it’s a big challenge, but we hope that with all the resources and support URC is giving, Sonedco will get there.”

URC chair Lance Gokongwei said moving forward, the company “will continue to invest a lot of energy and funds in ensuring that our partner farmers attain the highest productivity and highest income.”

“We will likewise ensure that our mills are as efficient and as productive as they can be, while investing in facilities for value- added services, such as sugar refineries, bio-mass energy production, and bio-ethanol and CO2 (carbon dioxide) production,” Gokongwei said.

URC, through its sugar manufacturing arm Sugar and Renewables Group (URC SURE), is comprised of two groups: sugar division and distillery division.