Washington — The inauguration of a major sugar plant in Sudan this month was made possible because of a decision by the U.S. administration to grant a one-time exemption from the sanctions it imposed on the East African nation more than a decade ago, according to a newspaper report.

Last April, the Sudanese government was placed in humiliating situation when it was forced to cancel the highly publicized opening of the White Nile Sugar Factory at the 11th hour due to the refusal of the company providing the plant's software to release it citing compliance with U.S. sanctions.

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President of the Republic, Field Marshal Omer Al Bashir inaugurates today the White Nile Sugar Factory and a number of other related projects and industries.

Director of the White Nile Sugar Factory, Engineer Ali Al-Sayed explained that the sugar industry is a bridge to many industries and the basis for development in developing countries, pointing out that the said factory would be a source of food and energy, as well as for the production of sugar, as there will be lines for animal production, ethanol and generation of electricity.

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* Plant delayed by technical reasons

* Boosting sugar production a top priority

(Reuters) - Sudan has shelved the launch of a $1 billion sugar plant, state media said on Tuesday, delaying a strategic industrial project that was meant to help the government overcome a severe economic crisis.

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KHARTOUM: Kenana, Sudan's biggest sugar company, is planning to raise $200 million listing a quarter of its shares in Hong Kong in December, to finance new projects.

Kenana wants to more than double output to over 1 million tons annually and establish itself as a major exporter, managing director Mohamed El Mardi told Reuters in an interview.

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Khartoum – Federal Minister of Industry, Engineer Abdul Wahab Osman reiterated the intension to operate the While Nile Sugar Factory to start production next May to join the 2011/2012 season with an initial production of 150 thousand tonnes.

This came during the Minister's visit to the factory's site to follow-up the progress of the work.

It is worth noting that preparations were 90 percent complete as it is assumed that the factory work with its utmost production capacity next May.

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Khartoum - President Omar Al Bashir and Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz directed the concerned parties to promote industrial and economic relations between the two countries, said Minister of Industry Abdul Wahab Mohammad Othman during signing a contract on establishment of Sugar Company in Mauritania by Kenana Sugar Company (KSC).

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Khartoum – Minister of Industry has set the end of January as the date for the kick-off of production at the White Nile Sugar factory with an initial capacity of 15,000 tons of sugar per year.

Eng. Abdul-Wahab Mohamed Osman has made the remarks during an inspection visit to site of the project in Gitaina Locality, White Nile State. The work at the site is progressing according to the schedule agreed upon with executing companies, he adds.

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Khartoum - Assistant of the President of the Republic, Dr. Jalal Yousif Al-Degair, is due to visit Sunday the White Nile Sugar Factory, accompanied by the Minister of Industry, Engineer Abdul-Wahab Mohamed Osman, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kenana Sugar Company.

During the visit, Dr. Al-Degair and the accompanying delegation will be informed on the stages of implementation of the factory which will be inaugurated early next year.

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Sudan will increase its sugar output to address a shortage in Africa’s third-biggest producer of the sweetener.

The country’s production is expected to climb to 750,000 metric tons in the period from this month to May next year, compared with 670,000 tons a year earlier, Farouk Mahmoud Osman, deputy general manager at state-owned Sudanese Sugar Co., said today in an interview at his office in the capital, Khartoum.

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Minister of Industry, Dr. Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz said that the new White Nile Sugar Project will enter cycle of production during the next few months.

Inaugurating the production season of the year 2011/2012 at Kenana Sugar Company yesterday, Al-Jaz said that Sudan will witness a qualitative leap on the level of the world in the manufacture of sugar and ethanol, through an integrated plan involving Kenana and Sudanese sugar companies.

For his part, the White Nile Governor, Yousif Al-Shenbali praised the contributions of Kenana Sugar Company in the development and service programs of the state, while Mohammed Al-Mardi Al-Tijani, Managing Director of Kenana announced that the company has developed a clear plan to increase the production of sugar and ethanol, the thing that makes the Sudan at the top of the world in their production.

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Sudan’s White Nile Sugar Co. signed agreements for an ethanol factory and animal-feed plant with China CAMC Engineering Co., Managing Director Hassan Satti said.

“The agreement is for building the two factories,” which would start production in the crop year ending April 2012 when White Nile plans to begin sugar production, Satti said in an interview late yesterday in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

The ethanol factory will have a capacity of 46 million liters (12.2 million gallons) a year and will use molasses, a byproduct from White Nile’s sugar production, Satti said. The animal-feed plant will produce 100,000 metric tons each year, he said.

Satti declined to say how much the projects would cost. Beijing-based China CAMC Engineering will start building the factories in January, he said upon arrival from a trip to China and India with Sudan’s Industry Minister Awad Ahmed al-Jazz.

The trip also aimed to promote other planned projects by Kenana Sugar Co., which owns a 30 percent stake in White Nile, including Al-Sofeyya sugar factory, a sugar refinery and a port to export agricultural products to be built in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, Satti said.

There was “big interest” from a number of Chinese companies in these projects, with detailed talks scheduled to start in December in Sudan, Satti said. He declined to mention company names.

Double Output

The ethanol plant will be Sudan’s second producer of the biofuel. Sudan currently produces 65 million liters of ethanol per year, at Kenana, the country’s largest sugar producer, which plans to double its output to 130 million liters by 2013, Kenana Managing Director Mohamed El Mardi said in September.

The Sudanese parliament is expected to pass a law this year that would require fuel suppliers to sell gasoline locally containing 5 percent to 10 percent biofuels starting next year, Hassan Erwa, Kenana’s marketing manager said in a September interview in Johannesburg.

Kenana exported its first five million liters of ethanol to the European Union in December.

Sudan is currently Africa’s fourth-largest sugar producer. It has five factories with a total output of about 800,000 metric tons, of which four are owned by the government and the other by Kenana.

source: bloomberg

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KHARTOUM - Sudan has secured funding for a new 140,000 tonne sugar factory which will also produce 30 million litres of ethanol by November 2014, in the latest step to gear the African nation's sugar industry towards export.

Executive Director of the Mashkour sugar company Mohamed Abdelatti Abdalla told Reuters the factory will be a model in the White Nile region to produce sugar, ethanol and electricity in the first phase, moving to add animal feed, dairy and meat in a second phase after five years.

"We've got a government-government credit line from EXIM Bank in India for about $150 million," Abdalla said. "The total cost of the project is $280 million and the balance of the money will be provided by the shareholders."

He said they would likely sign a contract to begin construction by the end of the month.

The shareholders in Mashkour are Sudan's largest sugar company Kenana and various governmental bodies.

"Because the sugar industry has a very long period for construction and it needs huge investment, the private sector is often afraid to invest -- they need to hit and run," he said.

"The government here will just provide guarantees to ensure the project is on track and then they will pull out when the project is more mature and the private sector will come in to buy the shares."

He said the factory would produce an initial crop of 70,000 tonnes of sugar and 15 million litres of ethanol in November 2013 before full production kicked in the following year.

Abdalla said the first phase will bring in estimated revenues of $140 million a year and the second phase adding the animal feed, meat and dairy production would bring it to $200 million with internal revenue return projected to be 28 percent.

The project is one of at least 10 planned to catapult Sudan into the world's top five sugar producers by 2020 hoping to target 10-14 million tonnes a year.

The plan is on track to transform Sudan from a sugar importer -- it produces about 750,000 tonnes a year while demand is 1.2 million tonnes -- into a net exporter by 2014.

But the overall plan will require some $20 billion investment, which may be difficult to secure in Sudan, emerging from multiple civil wars and suffering under U.S. economic sanctions since 1997 which has deterred Western investors.

Britain this year announced a new policy to encourage investment in Africa's largest country which has an abundance of land and where the Blue and White Niles meet. Khartoum hopes other European companies will follow suit.

source: reuters

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White sugar rose the most in 3 1/2 months in London after a report that Sudan bought 100,000 metric tons of the sweetener.The price was $60 million, according to the report by Sudan’s state-run SMC news agency, indicating that the product was white, or refined, sugar costing $600 a ton.

White sugar for May delivery on the Liffe exchange is $27.90 a ton more expensive than August-delivery sweetener, up from a $19.60 spread at last week’s end.

“There’s buying pressure focused on the May contract in London, which could well be linked to Sudan,” said James Kirkup, director and head of sugar brokerage at Fortis Bank Nederland in London. A 100,000-ton purchase would be a “significant quantity,” he said.

White sugar for May delivery climbed $17, or 3.5 percent, to close at $503 a ton on Liffe, the biggest jump for that contract since Dec. 14. Prices posted a sixth straight weekly drop last week. Raw sugar for May delivery gained 2.8 percent to 17.47 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York at 5:50 p.m. London time.

As much as two inches of rain fell in growing areas over the weekend in Brazil, the world’s largest sugar producer, raising the potential for harvest delays, according to Dale Mohler, agricultural meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Sugar prices more than doubled last year as excess rains curbed output in Brazil.

Weather Forecasts

The rain is “probably getting people a little edgy,” Mohler said. Forecasts call for drier weather to return next month and into May, he said.

The sweetener has tumbled 33 percent this year as forecasts for improved crop prospects in India curbed demand from investors and importers.

Prices “may have found a floor as a base for a new rise due to ongoing tight fundamentals for the remainder of the 2009- 10 season,” German research company F.O. Licht said in a twice- a-month report.

Cuban raw-sugar output is about 100,000 tons behind plans to produce 1.3 million tons this season, Licht said. Pakistan has produced 2.96 million tons of refined sugar this season to March 17, compared with domestic demand of 4.3 million tons, according to the researcher, which cited Industry and Production Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani.

Robusta coffee for May delivery rose 2.4 percent to $1,371 a ton on Liffe, the highest closing price since Dec. 16.

Traders were probably net short, or betting on lower prices, by 25,000 contracts and have closed 10,000 to 12,000 contracts as prices rebounded, according to estimates by Ralph Hawes, head of the sugar desk at Sucden in London. Robusta has gained 5.5 percent this month.

Cocoa for May delivery increased 1.4 percent to 2,246 pounds ($3,362) a ton.

source: businessweek

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Injazat Capital Limited, the leading investment bank in the MENA region, announced today that it would provide advisory services to White Nile Sugar Company Ltd. (WNSC) on completing the financing of its new $1 billion sugar refinery and related products in Sudan.
WNSC is planned to be the largest integrated sugar and energy producer in Africa covering an area of 165,000 hectares. The project is expected to have an annual capacity of 465,000 tons of white sugar using up to 128 MW of electricity and 60 liters of ethanol.

“Sudan is well placed to achieve rapid developments in the field of Agriculture," said Rami Bazzi, Injazat Capital Senior Executive Officer. "In the past decade, the country has experienced rapid increase in economic, population and urban growth, improved business climate, a surge in foreign and domestic investment in agriculture and an expansion in using new technologies.”
WNSC is designed to be one of the key global players in the sugar industry and to introduce new technologies into cultivating sugar cane. So far, more than 50% of the project was accomplished and is planned to be ready by end of 2010.
Kenana Sugar Company (KSC) is the principal shareholder who manages WNSC. KSC is a Sudanese agro-industrial company aiming at maintaining food security at home and internationally using sustainable resources through innovation and diversification in complete harmony with the environment.
“Building on KSC’s expertise as the world’s largest integrated sugar company and through transferring knowledge, implementing best practices and introducing new technologies, WNSC will be one of the lowest cost producers in the world," said Mr. Hassan Satti, General Manager of WNSC, "We are very proud to have the project in Sudan.”
The project is supported by several shareholders and banks from Sudan and the Arab world.
About Injazat Capital Limited:
Injazat Capital Limited is a category 2 Islamic investment bank, delivering innovative solutions to institutional and individual investors. Registered in the renowned Dubai International Financial Centre and regulated by Dubai Financial Services Authority, Injazat Capital delivers a range of Sharia compliant financial services including fund management, investment banking, corporate advisory and other innovative financial services.

Source:albawaba

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(KHARTOUM) – Sugar production of four public factories in the season 2008/09 reached 356,000 metric tons, a figure presented as a high one by Minister of Industry Jalal Yousif Al-Degair.

He said that the production of the sugar factories — New Halfa, Genain, Assalaya, and Sennar — in the past season was 342,000 metric tons.

The Minister did not include Sudan’s largest sugar factory in his count, presumably because the Kenana factory is only about one-third owned by the Government of Sudan. The other shareholders include the Government of Kuwait with about 30 percent, Saudi Arabia with over 10 percent, the Arab Investment Company with 7 percent, and the state-owned Sudan Development Corporation with about 5 percent.

Overall, the country produces about 850,000 metric tons per year. According to a June 2009 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, this year’s harvest is estimated to have gained 3.6 percent over the 2007/08 harvest. The FAO attributes the gains to "favourable weather conditions and conducive public support."

Al-Degair indicated that the total area under cultivation for sugar cane in the season 2008/09 was 88,506 feddans, compared to 86,728 feddans last season.

Plans for significant expansion of the sugar industry are already underway. These will improve irrigation infrastructure in order to increase the cane areas under cultivation.

A Morrocon company, Awna Investment, aims to implement a 500 million euro (US$696.9 million) project, the Gafa project which will produce 43,000 tons of sugar a year when output begins in three years.

Another project, an ethanol initiative at the Kenana plant, will begin production in the next year, said Minister Al-Degair.

source: sudantribune

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Sudan aims to produce 13 million metric tons of sugar over the next 10 years, the Sudan News Agency reported, citing Industry Minister Jalal Yousif al- Degair.

Al-Degair met representatives of Awna Investment, a Morrocon company, to discuss the 500 million euro ($696.9 million) Gafa project, which will produce 43,000 tons of sugar a year when output begins in three years, the Khartoum-based news agency said.

Sugar production in Sudan currently stands at about 850,000 tons per annum, according to government data.

source: bloomberg

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