LSR began construction on its new refinery at the end of 2009, which will be located in Gramercy, Louisiana, next to ISC’s existing refinery. Per agreement, operations at the ISC refinery were turned over to LSR on December 31, 2010.

The location of the new LSR refinery makes it possible to make use of all the infrastructure, facilities and operational support from the existing Imperial Sugar facility. Once the new plant is operational, some of the operations of the old facility will be merged into the new refinery and the former will be shut down. Imperial’s bag packaging facility at Gramercy will be retained and operated by ISC with sugar sourced from LSR under a long-term agreement.

According to Richard “Red” Geurts, General Manager for LSR, “Although the completed LSR facility is scheduled to open this summer, the entity is currently using some aspects of the new refinery, which are already in use, including a new load out system that is used to load rail cars and trucks.”

LSR has also implemented a new ion exchange filter system in the production of sugar at the refinery. This new system replaces the use of bone char in the whitening process. The ion exchange system and the load out system are two important system upgrades that have enhanced the efficiency of production as well as the quality of the sugar.

Cargill has officially assumed sales and marketing for LSR and has begun shipping sugar to its customers. The raw sugar for the refinery is obtained from Sugar Growers and Refiners through a raw sugar supply agreement.

Once operational, the facility will be the largest sugar refinery in the United States producing one million tons of sugar per year and will consume approximately 100 percent of the raw sugar from cane grown in Louisiana.

Any major production plant, such as Imperial Sugar’s state-of-the-art sugar refinery and production plant, routinely faces glitches and challenges. The goal is a frontline workforce capable of finding the root causes of process problems and quickly bring improvement. “At the end of training, we’ll have lots of people well-versed in troubleshooting,” says Refinery Manager Jim Flynn.

Simon Keighley of Hagen & Company works with Imperial associates to significantly increase productivity through problem-solving techniques.

An initial foray into training began in February of this year, when consultant Simon Keighley from Hagen & Co. arrived at the Port Wentworth refinery to train a team of eight associates in a problem-solving technique called “Control Factor Analysis,” which falls within the Define Measure Analyze Improve Control (DMAIC) framework of Six Sigma.

What began in that initial phase as training for eight has grown to include nearly 150 team leads, managers, engineers and hourly associates across the refinery. The newly embedded training is an essential part of a continuous-improvement cycle, where employees continually collect data, identify top problems, then solve any challenge that comes up.

“The difference between the initial training and this round is that, now, a rigorous scientific approach to problem-solving becomes part of the culture of the organization,” says Flynn. “So we don’t need one team to dedicate 10% of their time to solving problems. Solving problems becomes part of everyone’s day-to-day job.”

The proprietary technique taught by Hagen & Co., called Control Factor Analysis (CFA), allows people to find out which part of a process — or which control factor — is off kilter, before taking steps to solve the problem.

With so many employees trained in the discipline, the power to drive improvement on the front lines will be multiplied exponentially.

Explains Keighley, “We’re trying to drive capability at all levels, so a greater percentage of problems will be solved by hourly associates. When it becomes a greater part of a lead operator’s job to solve problems, those problems never have to involve management and engineers, which frees up managers and engineers to drive improvement in the business as a whole.”

For some associates, training consists of two-and-a-half days of training, followed by solving a production- or quality-oriented problem currently identified at the refinery. They have two weeks to solve the problem.

Yet other associates in the refinery and packaging areas will receive an eight-hour training session that focuses on the “define” and “measure” components of DMAIC. The goal is to make sure those on the front line, who often see a problem first, know to take 10 minutes to document the symptoms with notes or photographs, so the problem can be analyzed and permanently solved.

“It’s critical that all associates get to the root cause of the problem to make sure that same problem doesn’t occur two weeks later,” says Keighley. “That drives the reliability of the refinery. And it’s why we’re going through this training with every single operator in the plant.”

A daily 9 a.m. meeting allows the refinery team to review the list of top problems that need solving. The list, which stays posted in the refinery’s break room for all to see, includes action items, as well as who’s working on what, and what has been accomplished so far. Flynn expects that soon associates will take pride in seeing their accomplishments posted on the board.

“The bottom line is, to achieve continuous improvement, you have to solve problems faster than they occur,” Flynn says. “We’re adding more bandwidth to our ability to solve problems faster by involving all our people. And that’s how we’ll achieve continuous improvement.”

SES Vanderhave sales manager Nick Revier says his company has enough conventional seed to cover the Red River Valley, if it’s needed.

“I do have enough conventional seed to cover every Roundup Ready order, if we have to go that way, we can plant conventional varieties, but it’s really way too early to anticipate what the US Department of Agriculture-APHIS is going to do, so we’re just going to kind of play it by ear and be prepared for either.”

Lonnie Champagne, general manager of Louisiana Sugar Growers and Refiners, Inc.

With rows of sugarcane standing tall beside him, Lonnie Champagne, general manager of Louisiana Sugar Growers and Refiners, Inc., sees a new era ahead for farmers of this Louisiana mainstay crop.

He looks forward to the day when young producers get back into the business, believing Louisiana Sugar Refining, LLC – or LSR as it’s known locally – just might help make that a reality.

“Farming cane in Louisiana is a tough business. And like the rest of the agricultural community, we’ve seen young farmers and ranchers fleeing the farms for better pay and less hours,” says Champagne.

“We probably have the longest, toughest season of harvesting I can think of – starting around October 1 and extending through December 31.”

Sugar Growers and Refiners is an agricultural marketing cooperative of eight sugarcane mills and 725 cane growers in 23 parishes of southern Louisiana. It’s involved in the marketing of raw sugar and molasses, annually producing about 950,000 tons of sugar – nearly two billion pounds.

The cane produced on 450,000 acres of Louisiana farmland is delivered to area sugar mills. There, the cane is crushed, the juices are extracted and the sugar is crystallized. The sugar is then stored in warehouses throughout the state. Sugar refiners, such as Imperial Sugar Company (ISC), draw from these warehouses and convert the raw sugar into the familiar sugar products used in kitchens everywhere.

According to Champagne, cane farming requires a significant capital investment in specialized equipment to harvest and deliver the crop. He says the higher prices in sugar during the last couple of years have helped farmers catch up economically and repair their balance sheets.

“It’s the first opportunity our growers have had in the last 20 years to replace tractors, pay off debt and put themselves on a better footing,” says Champagne.

Sugarcane has been produced in Louisiana for more than 225 years, with families passing down their farms for multiple generations.

November 2009 marked the beginning of a new era for Louisiana sugar growers and producers. A joint venture formed among Imperial Sugar Company, Cargill and Sugar Growers and Refiners will bring about the first large-scale integration of growers, mills and refiners – enabling farmers to participate in the marketing and profits of refined sugar.

Champagne says his organization decided 10 years ago to pursue a vertical integration model, and though it took a long time, “it was well worth it.”

The venture will result in a new sugar refinery, which has been under construction since the end of last year. It’s planned for completion in late spring or early summer 2011. The new facility is located in Gramercy, La., next to ISC’s existing refinery.

Pointing to stalks of sugarcane reaching 10 feet in height, Champagne says the cane growing on farms today will likely provide some of the first raw sugar to be processed in the new refinery.

“This year started out with a hard winter and a dry spring, which allowed our producers to get into the fields early and do their work – and the cane has been growing ever since,” he points out.

Champagne hopes the LSR venture will secure the future for the next generation of growers and bring “a resurgence of young producers in south Louisiana.”

The Indian sugar producer said it would be acquiring more investments to bolster its existing two and increase its presence and business in Latin America’s biggest economy, Brazil.

Narendra Murkambi, Shree Renuka Sugars’ managing director was quoted saying that even though the firm was mulling additional Brazilian investments, there is not any firm or immediate considerations as it is currently.

Brazil is the biggest global producer of sugar and the company’s move for more investments is targeted at increasing its dominance and presence in the region and globally. The managing director further added that Shree Renuka was keen on acquisitions but nothing tangible is on the offing.

Click here for the full story.

For Stephen Douglas, a chemical engineering major at Louisiana State University, an internship in Gramercy is turning out to be far more than he first expected.

This summer, for the first time, Imperial Sugar Company (ISC) is offering an internship program that allows six outstanding engineering students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in their field.

“It’s a fantastic program, and I’m excited to have six great students,” says George Muller, vice president of administration.

George Muller, vice president of administration.

“This isn’t your typical summer job where you goof around for barely-above-minimum wage. This has some real teeth to it. And the feedback I’ve gotten is that all six students are very engaged, taking it seriously and learning as much as they can.”

One intern is at ISC’s refinery in Gramercy, La. The other five work full time at the refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga. Each intern is spending the summer focusing on at least one substantial project for the company, and each one is partnered with a different ISC engineer, who will serve as mentor.

For Stephen Douglas, a chemical engineering major at Louisiana State University, an internship in Gramercy is turning out to be far more than he first expected. He started in the lab, transforming product test spreadsheets into automated graphs to identify trends in the purity and consistency of granulated sugar.

Add to that, his current project at the molasses blending station, where he’s designing a filtration system that uses automated, self-cleaning filters. Douglas, who will be a senior this fall, sums it all up this way: “I’ve been exposed to a lot of different areas, which has turned into a really valuable experience, depending on where I work afterward.”

Rising senior Emma Sebeey is originally from Cameroon, West Africa, but now studies chemical engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Sebeey’s first project of the summer is to help improve the process of removing impurities from liquid sugar and, in turn, gain cost efficiencies. “I’ve learned a tremendous amount in only three weeks,” she says.

Raised in Dubai, Seena Mehrabanzad is earning a master’s degree in engineering and technology innovation management. He’s working with senior process engineer Chris Gordon to optimize one of the steps in the sugar crystallization process.

Explaining why he transplanted himself from Carnegie Mellon for the opportunity, Mehrabanzad says, “The fact that the company is rebuilding was intriguing to me. I hope that I can help with some processes to make them even better than they were before.”

Rising sophomore Will Flores, also at NCSU, is pursuing an academic path in computers and electrical engineering. To match his interests, ISC engineers tasked him with a project that involves replacing a programmable logic control – a computer – for the mechanical stretch wrapper, which wraps clear film around sugar packages stacked on pallets.

“It’s been a help to talk to my mentor, Tim Strozzo, about whether this field is worth poring over all the electrical engineering books,” Flores says. “So far, so good!”

Interns at Port Wentworth refinery are: (l-r)Will Flores of NC State University, Seena Mehrabanzad ofCarnegie-Mellon University, Evan McConnell of NC State University, Emmanuella Sebeey of NC State University and Ian Avera of NC State University.

Evan McConnell, who will be a senior at NCSU next year, says he likes the fact that he can apply what he’s been learning at school. “I’m working on a project with the plant’s steam turbines,” he says. “It’s funny, because the last class I took before coming here dealt with turbines and how they operate. I’ve really enjoyed how new tasks come up every day. It’s very refreshing!”

Originally from Homer, Alaska, Ian Avera will earn his mechanical engineering from NCSU after one more semester. His multiple projects fall under the category of energy savings. For example, Avera is weighing options for recapturing lost energy and condensate from the refinery’s steam boilers.

“It’s a huge opportunity in terms of savings,” says reliability engineer Andre Jeffries, who is Avera’s mentor.

Like the others, Avera points to the hands-on benefits of the internship. “This isn’t my first internship,” he says, “but I consider it to be my best. It’s the first experience where I’ve been able to combine the nitty-gritty calculations and analysis that I’ve learned in class with hardcore engineering experience.”

Dudley (Dutch) J Melancon, Jr., Packaging Superintendent at the Gramercy, La refinery, inspects the new Imperial Sugar railcars before loading with sugar.

For 14 years, Don Gilbert has dreamed of seeing Imperial Sugar Company (ISC) railcars painted a bright “Imperial blue” and sporting the company’s logo. His dream has finally true – along with some new features for customers, too.

Thirty new bulk railcars, manufactured by Trinity Rail Industries, are on their way to the Gramercy, La., and Port Wentworth, Ga., refineries, where they’ll be used for transporting refined sugar by rail to customers. Unlike in years past, this batch of railcars is a distinctive bright blue, not grey, and each has its own Imperial Sugar crown.

“The customer will see these cars arrive at their facility, and they’ll know exactly who it is,” says Gilbert, the company’s director of commodities management and logistics. “The cars are recognizable and memorable.”

Don Gilbert, director of commodities management and logistics for Imperial Sugar.

Beyond the blue finish, which was carefully matched to ISC’s logo, the railcars have features important to many customers receiving bulk products by rail.

For example, a “hatch-and-hatch” system on top of each railcar allows for two openings, one small and one large. When loading a railcar, Imperial can use the smaller opening, reducing the possibility of contamination.

Stainless steel gates on the bottom of the railcars, as well as food-grade lining inside of them, allow the transported sugar to quickly empty out. Those features make it easier for a customer, after receiving a car full of refined sugar, to open the gate and unload.
The number of railcars in Imperial Sugar’s fleet is now just under 600. As the company expands its fleet, Gilbert says, every new railcar will be built with customer-friendly features such as the hatch-and-hatch system, food-grade lining and stainless steel gate.

And, he hopes, they’ll be painted in that same distinctive blue.

Consumers continue to clamor for foods and drinks sweetened with all-natural sugar. Products such as Heinz and Hunt’s ketchup, Pepsi Throwback, Snapple, Gatorade, and Wheat Thins are just a few of the household names to answer the call. Click here for a current list.

Andy Briscoe, President & CEO, The Sugar Association.

Starbucks, one of the nation’s biggest restaurant chains, summed up its decision to use sugar in its food products: “We heard loud and clear from our customers that they want food, when they purchase food at Starbucks, to be made of high quality ingredients and from simple recipes.”

Of course, those same consumers would probably be fuming if many of these same manufacturers scrapped all-natural sugar and replaced it with artificial or man-made sweeteners, such as neotame, sorbitol, and polydextrose.

A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 52 percent of parents make a conscious effort to avoid artificial sweeteners, yet few are actually able to identify common sweeteners used in food products.

With such overwhelming evidence that consumers want natural products like sugar, you might think a move to artificials would never happen. Think again.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are currently being revised, and the federal government is under pressure to recommend limiting Americans’ sugar intake to as little as possible. If this happens, manufacturers would be left with little recourse but to reformulate their recipes.

And if they reformulate, many consumers may not even realize it.

When shown the ingredient label of a popular children’s product, given to dehydrated infants, only four percent of parents could identify all the sweeteners. About one in seven (13 percent) parents couldn’t identify any of the four sweeteners used.

Considering 87 percent of parents say the sweetener used in a product is at least somewhat important to them when making food decisions for their kids, they have a desire and right to know what sweeteners they are feeding their family.

The Sugar Association has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to follow Canada’s lead and clear up consumer confusion with front-of-package labeling for artificial sweeteners. For nearly five years, this petition has been tangled in government red tape while new sweeteners come on the market each year and some even change their names to be less recognizable.

Andy Briscoe, President and CEO of the Sugar Association said, “We know consumers are confused by the more than 25 sweeteners being used in the U.S. market. Consumers have a right to know what is in their food, and the current FDA labeling standards aren’t working.”

We’re confident that when given all the facts, Americans will make the same choice people have made for more than 2,000 years: sugar.

Eric Terry, char house operator in Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth refinery, returned to work after being stationed in the Afghan city of Jalalabad with the U.S. Army.

Today, Eric Terry works as a char house operator in Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth refinery. This time last year, he was in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, serving in the U.S. Army as a gunner – one of the soldiers who rides on top of a tank or Humvee, manning a .50-caliber or M240B machine gun.

“I was proficient with the really big guns,” Terry says, “so they put me on that job.”

Riding in a Humvee made him a regular target for roadside bomb attacks, so he feels “fortunate to make it back.” In the same breath, though, he humbly points out that he was simply doing his job in Afghanistan – just like he’s doing his job here.

His military service began in 2005, when he joined the 48th Infantry Brigade of the Georgia National Guard. At the time, he felt he “wanted some direction and to be a part of something.” He entered boot camp for 18 weeks at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which was every bit as rigorous as people say: “You pretty much train from 4 a.m. when you wake up, until two hours before you bed down. Every day, for 18 weeks.”

With his training complete, “you go back to the civilian world to do your job and take care of your family,” he explains. His involvement with the National Guard was scaled back to training once a month during the year, with a two-week training stint during the summer.

And then, his unit was called up for active duty.

Terry left Savannah in January 2009 to spend six months in training before being deployed to Jalalabad for 10 months. It meant leaving his wife and baby boy, Bryson, behind. “I missed his first steps, his first words –- everything,” he says.

Terry rides on top of a tank or Humvee, manning a .50-caliber or M240B machine gun, similar to this military photo of an Afghan patrol.

Deployment is tough on a family, but so is the transition when a soldier returns. When he first returned home in April 2010, he spent a lot of time with his son to recapture “that bond,” he says. For the months that Terry was gone, he and his wife had told Bryson that Daddy was at work.

Coming home meant returning to work for Imperial Sugar Company – where he had been employed for the two years before deploying. When Terry returned to Savannah, the company “put me where they needed me,” says Terry – the char house. “My job at Imperial is really important to me, because it helps me support people who were supporting me while I was in Afghanistan.”

He has nothing but positive words for his co-workers, who have told him how much they value his brave service in Afghanistan. And the experience of serving in the military has made him even more thankful for and aware of what he has.

“It helps me appreciate what I have back home more,” he says. “As a man, I think I’m a little more grown-up than I was before.”

Terry will be with the National Guard until next year. He knows there is a chance he’ll be called up for active duty again. For now, though, he isn’t thinking about it. He’s too busy adjusting to his new role in the char house and playing toy trains with Bryson.

“We want to move beyond vendor to valued partner,” said Lucas, national sales director, industrial channel, at Imperial. “That means establishing deeper, multi-tier customer relationships from a marketing and R&D perspective.”
For Lucas, being a valued partner will require Imperial to position itself as a sweetener solutions company – one that not only provides sugar, but also works closely with its customers to develop innovative sweetener products.

Lucas said that when introducing a new product to customers, Imperial will take extra steps to help them determine how to best use and market the product and ensure its success.

Joe Lucas, national sales director, industrial channel, at Imperial Sugar.

“We will be working hand-in-hand with the Imperial product development team and our customers,” said Lucas. “The team will not only talk to our customers’ R&D people, but also to their marketing groups to discuss at length the features, benefits and applications of our sweeteners at a more technical level.”

Growing the company’s presence throughout North America and maximizing value creation from its joint ventures and alliances – an Imperial core business strategy – will be integral to Lucas’ consultative sales approach. Those joint ventures include Comercializadora Santos Imperial, a sugar producer based in Monterrey, Mexico, and Natural Sweet Ventures, which is developing Stevia-based sweetening products.

Sugar production in Mexico will play a bigger role when Imperial’s domestic production for industrial customers shifts solely to its Port Wentworth, Ga., refinery next year. Also, new stevia-based products will help establish a broader base for Imperial’s sweetening solutions.

Lucas pointed to a meeting with a major food manufacturer at the 2010 International Sweetener Colloquium to show how Imperial can use these ventures to the customer’s advantage.

There, he and Imperial CEO and President John Sheptor shared with the customer how stevia/cane sugar blended sweeteners could be used in its products to leverage the benefits of sugar as well as caloric reduction. They also discussed Imperial’s ability to supply sugar in Mexico, which is very important to this company because it has a large manufacturing operation in Monterrey.

“Prior to that meeting, we’d be looked at only as a supplier who shipped the customer sugar out of our two U.S. plants,” said Lucas. “By the time we were finished, they saw us as a sweetener solutions provider – not only in the U.S., but also in Mexico. In other words, we were no longer perceived as just a cane sugar provider.”

Discussing the challenges and opportunities ahead, Lucas said Imperial is very focused on service in anticipation of its move to a single, U.S. plant operation for industrial customers. This change will occur once Louisiana Sugar Refining – a joint venture in which Imperial is one-third owner – opens its large new plant in Gramercy, La.

Raw sugar at Imperial Sugar's Gramercy refinery.

Imperial plans to place a bulk transfer station in Monterrey as early as the fall to expedite the shipping of sugar across the border and help fill the gap. “We’re fully anticipating that our operations in Mexico and the increased capacity of our Port Wentworth refinery will fill the Southwest market with the industrial volume we have in Gramercy,” said Lucas. “We are not abandoning this market at all.”

According to Lucas, service is already improving and customers are highly impressed with the newly modernized Port Wentworth facility.

Recently, about 20 customers got a first-hand look at the rebuilt plant during an Imperial combustible dust seminar. One customer said: “For six years, I’ve been responsible for combustible dust and safety at our company’s facility. I came in thinking I knew everything and was prepared to be bored for two days. After the first five minutes of a presentation before the actual tour, I knew I was wrong.”

Lucas believes the seminar and tour positioned Imperial as a strong partner for its customers. He said customers walked away with a new appreciation for Imperial’s dedication to safety and operational excellence, as well as for its openness in sharing all it had learned from the explosion that occurred there in early 2008.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity in front of us. It’s all driving toward the idea that we’re not just a sugar company, we’re a sweetener solutions company,” said Lucas. “When customers think of sweeteners, we believe they’ll think of Imperial first.”

Before joining Imperial, Lucas worked for Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa, chocolate and confectionery products.

Pat Henneberry, senior vice president of commodities for Imperial Sugar Company.

Even with a lot of market changes worldwide, the outlook for raw sugar reflects “a relatively tight supply and demand,” says Pat Henneberry, senior vice president of commodities for Imperial Sugar Company.

Based on the USDA’s July report for World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), Henneberry says: “We’re viewing the market as relatively firm for the rest of this fiscal year, ending in September.

“And the beginning of the succeeding year should also be firm because quota supplies won’t become readily available until the new crops in Central America that start in November and December.”

WASDE is the monthly report by the Department of Agriculture about the supply and demand of major domestic and foreign crops and U.S. livestock.

To hear more from Henneberry about the July WASDE report, please view this video.

The July 2010 WASDE report from USDA showed an 11.8 % ending stocks/use ratio for 2009-10 and a 9.0 % ending stocks/use ratio form 2010-11. If not for the 270,000 tons of additional imports as per the TRQ increase, the ending stocks/use ratio for 2009-10 would have dropped to 9.3 % from the 10.7 % in the June report.

Looking at 2009-10, the beet crop estimate was reduced by 50,000 tons due to lower than expected output from the old crop in May. The estimate of Florida production was increased by 8,000 tons. On the import front, the USDA added 270,000 tons of TRQ, assuming a 30,000 shortfall on the increase quantity and a 133,000 ton shortfall overall. This was partially offset by an 110,000 ton reduction in the estimate of Mexican imports from 540,000 to 430,000 based on the pace of imports to date (302,277 tons through the end of May). The impressive tail on the Mexican crop and related dip in prices will allow for at least a couple of cargoes of estandar to be shipped, and the new estimate may well prove a bit on the low side when all is said and done. On balance, the total supply was thus increased by 118,000 tons to 12.033 million tons. One or two high tier raws cargoes have already been landed in the US, suggesting that the USDA’s high tier import estimate of 75,000 tons for 2009-10 is too low.

Frank Jenkins of The Jenkins Sugar Group.

Somewhat surprisingly, the demand side of the ledger was left alone. Demand for 2009-10 is thus remains 1.12 % down from 2008-09. The April Sweetener market Data report (displayed below) shows US deliveries for human us and products for re-export up 7.4 %, led by the bottling sector which is up a staggering 29.3 % year-on-year. For 2010-11, the USDA shows US food use declining by a further ½ percent. If each year showed an actual increase of 2.0 % this would amount to nearly 600,000 tons of demand over the 24 months. 2010-11 ending stocks would be 355,000 tons and the ending stocks/use ratio would be 3.2 %.

For 2010-11, the beet crop estimate was increased by 80,000 tons to 4.710 million tons and the Texas cane crop estimate was reduced by 10,000 tons to 140,000 tons. Thus 2010-11 ending stocks are estimated at 952,000 tons, or 9.0 % of use.

The Mexican estimate is beginning to resemble a parlor trick, where no matter which or how many components are changed, the ending stocks figure never changes. In the most recent iteration, production for 2009-10 was increased by 35,000 tons, imports decrease by 135,000 and exports reduced by 100,000 and – voila! – ending stocks are unchanged at 868,000 tons. (Last month production was increased by 185,000 tons, neatly offset by a 15,000 ton reduction in imports and a 170,000 ton increase in domestic consumption, keeping the 868,000 tons ending stock figure intact.) We do not see how Mexico will bridge to the new crop without additional imports. The import number in today’s report assumes a few hundred thousand tonnes of additional imports before the end of September, and the export number is now a bit too low. Thus, it appears that Mexico will have only about six week’s worth of stocks on September 30th, roughly eight to 10 weeks before any meaningful new crop production is available. This will leave Mexico in the unenviable position of trying to import refined sugar ahead of the new crop, alongside Thailand, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic in addition to the usual suspects such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iraq.

We believe that the two quota increases seen recently have put the market on a better footing, but it is clear that the market is still extremely tight. Two simple measure of this are that the 2010-11 beginning stocks are estimated to be 231,000 tons lower than the 2009-10 carry-in – a stock situation that provided for all of the angst, gnashing of teeth and historically unprecedented pricing seen in the past six months. Secondly, in our update following the May WASDE report, we posed the question “If an 11.6 % stocks/use ratio in the April WASDE justified a 200,000 ton quota increase, does an 11.6 % stocks/use ratio in May call for another 200,000 tonne increase?” It turned out that the 10.7 % ratio in the June report called for a 300,000 ton increase, so the math is pretty consistent. So – what does the 11.8 % ratio in today’s report indicate? We doubt we will hear from the USDA again this year, aside from perhaps an early 2010-11 TRQ announcement, and feel the market will be perilously tight as a result – even if the dubious use estimate in today’s report proves accurate.

It is easy to get used to looking at the current S&D and be lulled into a false sense of security. Surely 11.8 % is more accommodating than 10.7 %. Should the 11.8 % ending stocks/use ratio prove accurate, it would be unprecedented. The average ending stocks/use ratio for the past decade is 16.89 %. The difference is roughly 550,000 tons of inventory.

Despite the very welcomed and skillfully allocated quota increases, we still see the market as undersupplied through October and believe that additional high tier imports will be needed in August and/or September to make ends meet. The stage is set to ensure that the 2010-11 futures positions will hold to a 27.00 to 30.00 range and that refined prices will hold in the upper 30 cent range, if not the recently announce 43.00 rate.

Read The Jenkins Sugar Group online.

John Sheptor, CEO and Chairman of Imperial Sugar.

Imperial Sugar Company’s (ISC) settlement with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) now positions the company to focus even more on improving workplace safety and driving its best practices across the food-processing industry worldwide.

“Imperial Sugar is pleased to resolve the citations,” said CEO and President John Sheptor. “Imperial agreed to the terms with OSHA in order to settle these matters expeditiously and amicably, and to allow us to better concentrate our resources toward not only enhancing the safety of our own facilities, but also to assist the sugar industry as a whole in addressing workplace hazards.”

Imperial Sugar was cited by OSHA in July 2008 for alleged safety violations at its Port Wentworth and Gramercy, La., facilities with a combined proposed penalty totaling $8.7 million.

As ISC rebuilt its Port Wentworth operations after a deadly explosion and fire, Sheptor led the company in creating an industry model for better worker safety, improved food-quality processes and greater manufacturing efficiencies.

Since the OSHA citations were issued, Imperial Sugar has worked with leading experts to collect and develop, through testing and other research efforts, information about the hazards of combustible dust specific to the sugar industry.

Ronald Allen, Sr. Director of Environmental Health and Safety

Sheptor noted: “Imperial’s extensive studies have guided us in implementing new hazard controls as we rebuilt our Port Wentworth facility as well as our existing facility in Gramercy.”

Ron Allen, senior director of environmental health and safety, is among the hundreds of leaders and employees at ISC’s refineries in Port Wentworth and Gramercy who’ve worked side-by-side to develop new standards and raise performance levels – benefiting the company and the sugar industry alike.

Allen, who also is the company’s chief safety officer, says Imperial Sugar’s efforts and solutions over the past couple of years have involved several areas, including:

• Improved engineering controls: ISC conducted thorough studies comparing its operations against National Fire Protection Association Standards – done with the support of globally recognized experts in the field of combustible dust.
• Stronger administrative controls: The company introduced new housekeeping procedures, as well as preventative maintenance, to ensure that conditions don’t develop that could lead to a combustible dust explosion.
• Rigorous employee training: Imperial Sugar developed professionally recognized, computer-based training modules on combustible dust, which didn’t exist previously.

“We have learned much from our experts and our own studies regarding combustible dust, and we are sharing our knowledge throughout the industry to help others to be aware of the hazards of combustible dust,” Sheptor says.

Port Wentworth silo relief panels.

The results of ISC’s research and initiatives continue to be shared with global sugar manufacturers and trade associations, as well as with ISC customers – many of whom handle combustible food materials in their own business.

Allen is quick to point how Imperial Sugar collaborated with OSHA officials in striving to raise industry safety standards for manufacturers by promoting a new combustible dust standard for OSHA, along with spreading the word through public forums for improvements.

Sheptor commended OSHA for its dedication to worker safety, and reiterated Imperial Sugar’s commitment to adhering to and exceeding its obligations under the OSH Act. “We are working diligently to become our industry leader in workplace safety.”

Reinforced packaging walls at Gramercy plant.

Reflecting on everyone’s dedication and diligence, Allen says: “When we do our work, often times it’s really in memory in those who lost their lives and in our commitment to not allow that to happen again.

“So, the progress we’ve made at Imperial is, in a large part, a tribute to the memories of whose lives were lost or were injured.”

Construction crew positioning steel reinforcement in the foundation of the new LSR refinery.

Construction on the refinery being built by Louisiana Sugar Refining (LSR) crosses a milestone as the foundations for some of its major facilities are poured.

The new refinery, which began construction at the end of 2009, is located in Gramercy, Louisiana, next to Imperial Sugar Company’s (ISC) existing refinery, and is owned jointly by Cargill, ISC and Sugar Growers and Refiners.

Initial work entailed the excavation of a seven-acre parcel of land, driving more than 850 pilings into the ground and preparing preliminary foundation work. This construction set the stage for erecting four new facilities:

• Process/dryer buildings – occupying 35,000 square feet.
• Bulk sugar storage/loading station – 2,000 square feet.
• Raw sugar unloading station – 6,900 square feet.
• Melter station – 3,000 square feet.

Recently, about 300 truckloads – or 3,000 cubic yards – of concrete were poured for the refinery’s process building foundation. The process building is where raw sugar is refined and converted into granulated white sugar and liquid sugar. The steel structure for the building will go up next.

LSR construction site with white Styrofoam spacers.

According to Brian Harrison, vice president of sugar technology for Imperial Sugar, large Styrofoam spacers were placed in non-load-bearing sections of the foundation to save on material costs. Harrison is ISC’s primary liaison for the project and serves on the procurement team.

The de-colorization station housed in the new process building will use a state-of-the-art resin-based technique to refine the color of sugar. This will improve cost of production and process efficiency.

The foundation for the bulk loading and storage building is scheduled to be poured the first week of July, with steel erection following shortly. Here, large quantities of sugar will be stored for loading onto trucks and railcars.

In parallel to the civil and structural activities, some of the equipment to be used in the new buildings is being manufactured – including vacuum pans, the de-colorization system, granulators, material handling systems and packaging machines. Production lead times for equipment range from three to nine months.

Piping, electrical and instrumentation work will take place after the equipment is installed.

The new refinery is scheduled for completion in late spring or early summer 2011. Once operational, it will produce a million tons of sugar per year.