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| Business |
| Ethanol project stalls |
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by
Ayam Maeresa, 03 October 2003
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09:55:00
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Press Cane, a new ethanol enterprise between conglomerate Press Corporation Limited (PCL) and a local company Cane Products Limited, is locked up in a bitter shareholder quarrel threatening to drown the billion kwacha project.
The two partners expected to commission the company in the southern sugar cane growing district of Chikwawa mid this year but nothing has happened so far.
Cane Products Limited company secretary Benjamin Msosa, whose company holds about 49.9 percent shares in the project with the rest owned by PCL, confirmed in an interview in Blantyre yesterday that Press Cane has indeed hit trouble at the eleventh hour.
He said it is not known when the ethanol project, costing about K2.28 billion (US$21 million), will be commissioned. Msosa said 30 Indian engineers working on the site will be flown home because there is no more work for them following this development.
“Yes, the project has stalled,” said Msosa, “It’s only a guess but I think it will not be commissioned this year and even next year.”
Msosa declined to comment on shareholders’ differences, which sources close to the deal say are fomenting problems in Press Cane.
Cane Products Limited owner Rolf Patel said in a separate interview Press Cane’s future hangs in the balance but declined to comment on whether he was locked in fight with PCL management.
He said only PCL knows why the project is failing to takeoff after spending a lot of money to invest in the plant which, he said, is one of the most modern ethanol producing plant in the world.
Using sugar cane molasses, the plant was billed to produce about 60,000 litres of ethanol per day to complement Ethanol Company (Ethco)—another subsidiary of PCL in Dwangwa in the Central Region.
“I initiated the project and invited PCL to join me but I’m not responsible for the management and operations of Press Cane. They should know better,” said Patel, a former cabinet minister.
There was no immediate comment from PCL when the paper got in touch with the group yesterday but group chief executive Matthews Chikaonda said early this year that Press Cane signed a contract with Sugar Corporation of Malawi (Sucoma) to get raw material supplies. |
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