The Uruguay sugar mill, known for its enormous size and grinding capacity as the Coloso de Jatibonico, will close in a few days, when it finishes grinding what is in production, according to industry sources told 14ymedio.
“According to them, the country is going to invest in maintaining and improving the machinery. It affects us, because it is also one of the few that are still working,” says the worker of a state company that has a contract with the plant, located in Sancti Spiritus.
The sugar mill, in operation since 1905, has undergone endless transformations and repairs since its foundation, but in recent years the stoppages due to failures and maintenance that exceed normal have multiplied. Last year, Uruguay spent months detained for repair and maintenance work and only in December was it able to start commissioning. Barely half a year later, and after crushing this season’s calamitous harvest, the colossus will have to close again.
“It’s completely destroyed, I don’t know how they grind it. It looks horrible, rusty, old, some of the walls are painted, but it looks deplorable, it’s falling apart”
“It’s completely destroyed, I don’t know how they grind it. It looks horrible, rusty, old, some of the walls are painted, but it looks deplorable, it’s falling apart,” says an engineer from Sancti Spiritus. The specialist, who performed social service as a teacher at a polytechnic school, has many friends among her former students, some of whom work at the Uruguay central, one of the largest sources of employment in the province historically. The sugar mills, in addition to direct work, generate many other indirect jobs, some of them the production of other foods or derived by-products. When the plant is paralyzed, the life of a municipality stops with it.
“They tell me that half of the stops are because the maintenance is not done well. They have some cycles that are, they are doing the best they can, but without tools and conditions, no matter how much desire you have, it will not stay in Sometimes, simply because a cable is not properly sealed, it will leak and that can end up causing a general shutdown”, he describes.
The engineer explains that, like any industry, a plant is a gear in which the parts must work perfectly, since the failure of one can completely stop the chain and spoil the raw material that is being processed.
In the meeting held with representatives of AzCuba, when they were informed of the closure, the causes of the stoppage were superficially explained, which will imply a complete remastering or capital repair, they maintained. “The failures are constantly occurring. I assume that they are going to get their hands on everything, but without resources we will see the botches they do,” the expert distrusts.
According to the engineer, one of the main problems facing the plant is the precariousness with which maintenance is carried out. “The plants have a boiler that hydrolyzes the guarapo line before entering, making it more liquid by subjecting it to a very rapid heat shock. This work involves significant pressure changes, which generate compression and decompression in the boilers, a movement that dilates and shrinks. For that, you have to change routinely, as part of the maintenance, some frames that there are, but it is not done because it costs. What is done is to tighten the screws, “he details.
The specialist indicates that, if these works are not carried out properly, the materials reach distemper and lose their elasticity, triggering pressure levels. “It’s not that the boiler explodes because there are mechanisms to prevent it from happening, but there are parts that are receiving bad pressure,” she warns.
This year, in Sancti Spíritus, a “staggered” grinding was planned, as the authorities called it. It was about alternating the two plants and taking advantage of the stoppage of the other, so that the Melanio Hernández, which also produces high-quality rum for export, went to work first and, against all odds, complied, although it needed more time than expected. The mill took 77 days, compared to the 37 expected, to grind the cane. Antonio Viamontes Perdomo, director of the company, said that there were four major breakages at the beginning, delaying performance, but the objective was achieved.
“They said that the harvest was based on the industrial capacity they had to process. That’s a lie: simply no more cane is being planted because the mills are falling
The forecasts, however, were not met and staggering was impossible. The Uruguay mill began to work simultaneously and in the middle of last month it had been milling for more than 100 days, with the planned plan at 70% and more than 55,000 tons of cane pending. AzCuba said then that it was expected to continue working as long as the weather permitted, although there has been no further official information on the amount produced.
The authorities then told that only Sancti Spiritus cane was going to be milled, although they hoped to be able to make some progress with that from Ciego de Ávila. “They said that the harvest was based on the industrial capacity they had to process. That’s a lie: simply no more cane is being planted because the mills are falling. Also put the guidelines on that, that you cannot grind cane that It is not from Sancti Spíritus, but the thing is that Sancti Spíritus does not produce as much cane and the Jatibonico mill, in spite of everything, has an immense milling capacity, it eats whatever it is and a harvest of a few days has been planned, which is not going to for the month’s quota. This measure is associated with fuel, because since the cane could not be moved, that initiative was taken,” says the Sancti Spiritus engineer.
In his opinion, the closure will have serious repercussions on the finances of the company where he works, in addition to, without a doubt, those of the country, which last Wednesday, June 15, admitted that it will not be able to meet its international commitments” after one of the worst harvests in history.
In May, Cuba only produced 53% of the initial sugar forecast. According to the plan presented in December before the National Assembly, the forecast was that the harvest would reach 911,000 tons, of which 500,000 were destined for domestic consumption and the remaining 411,000 tons for export. With the available data, 473,720 tons would have been produced: very insufficient to even cover the national demand.
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