Mackay Sugar confident future mill investment will address key performance issues ahead of 2023 sugar cane season

Wet weather brought about the end to harvesting on farms supplying Mackay Sugar's three mills: Racecourse, Marian and Farleigh on January 13.

Extensive crop left remaining in the field is a source for concern, and it will deliver an economic impact to millers and growers.

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After 31 weeks of crushing that extended into 2023, Mackay Sugar CEO Jannik Olejas said the season was marked by weather, mill performance and an ever-increasing crop, with Mackay Sugar crushing 5.55Mt of sugar cane and producing 670,000 tonnes of raw sugar.

"Whilst all parties would have loved to see the whole crop being harvested, being able to see 5.55Mt of cane off when prices remain as strong as they are is a positive outcome for everyone," Mr Oleias said.

"This season has given us great insight into what the region is capable of producing."

Whilst mill performance continued to impact the season, Mr Oleias says Mackay Sugar remains confident that their ongoing investment and capital improvement programs remain on track.

"What we've seen this year is that the things we're fixing in the mills are in fact delivering improvements - it's the items that we have yet to approach due to time or resources that have presented the majority of our challenges this year," he said.

"It's not news to us that we have a lot of work to do to bring the mills towards peak performance, and our multi-year plan for future investment will ensure we target the biggest risks and opportunities year on year.

"When looking at the 2022 season as a whole, it's our combined effort as an industry, dedication and desire to see as much of the crop off as possible that's had the biggest impact on our industry.

Mr Oleias said the 2023 season is already showing signs of producing another large crop.

Mackay Sugar's maintenance period commenced prior to the final cane being crushed in each mill.

Mackay Sugar general manager of operations Carl Morton said areas that caused key performance issues have factored highly into their planning and make up a large portion of the works moving forward.

"At Farleigh Mill, our maintenance program this year is focused on repairing No.4 boiler by replacing half the tubes in the convection bank (as well as ensuring water quality improvements and pan repairs)," Mr Morton said.

"All this being the areas that impacted the performance of the mill the most in the season gone by.

"At Marian Mill, apart from a "standout project" being replacing a chimney at a heigh of 50m, our significant project will be the installation of a new air heater on boiler No.1 - a project which is planned to deliver further reliability as well as increasing crushing rate.

"Finally, at Racecourse Mill, replacing our large 38MW Generator will be a major focus as well as pre-work for the large evaporator project that will replace the entire West station in the following year," Mr Morton said.

Mr Morton assured growers that on the maintenance front overall, Mackay Sugar was in a much stronger position than this time last year.

"Our teams having already secured parts on sites with detailed, resourced planned work already being started and progressing with a focus on key critical path jobs," he said.

Mackay Sugar is aiming to a start the 2023 crush by June.

Canegrowers deputy chairman and chairman of the Mackay Area Committee, Joseph Borg said poor milling performance was a primary challenge for both miller and growers in the Mackay region.

"Generally, wet weather did play a little part to the extended season length throughout the year and certainly the increase in crop size also played its part, but ultimately, mill performance was the major contributing factor as to why we were crashing in the second week of January," Mr Borg said.

"Mackay Sugar have spent a significant amount of money on the mills, whether they are getting bang for their buck, I'm not sure."

Mr Borg said standover (cane remaining unharvested) will be in excess of 370,000 tonne.

"There's the obvious reason whereby 370,000t of lost income has occurred due to both miller and grower," he said.

"It broke people's hearts because we had a brilliant crop, and brilliant price.

"There were a lot of people in and around Mackay who have done it very tough for a long period of time and this was going to be the golden year - unfortunately it didn't materialise."

Going forward, Mr Borg said the standover cane will need to be harvested and crushed later this season.

"It's not easy to process standover cane and that will cause the mills endless grief to be doing that next year," he said.

"Working on the assumption even if it stayed the same tonnage, potentially 370,000t of standover is probably three weeks to a month processing for the factories, by itself being difficult product to process."

Standover cane also reduces CCS levels, which can impact growers seasonal average and it can create issues with crop rotations.

"It has a large amount of flow on effects from leaving the crop in the paddock," Mr Borg said.

Mr Borg said Canegrowers and the local farming community are now calling for crashing performance that's viable for everybody.

I'd love to see a situation where growers can be finishing the crush mid to late November, that's where we need to be," he said.

"That way we get away from the weather, and the returns have got an opportunity to get away before the wet season kicks in."

Final crop estimate for the Mackay region last season was 5.9 million tonne, from an initial 5.1Mt.

Wilmar's Plane Creek in Sarina crushed out on January 7.

Canegrowers reported that standover for Wilmar suppliers is in excess of 150,000 t.

The mill crushed 1.49 million tonnes- the highest throughput since 1999, with initial crop estimate at 1.3mt.