The commissioning of the US$181 million state-of-the-art Skeldon sugar factory was due to resume at midnight last night with the firing up of the boilers in preparation for the crushing of cane by 9 this morning.

In addition five engineers from the suppliers of the factory’s components in Australia, England and the USA are due to arrive in the country today and over the weekend to assist the engineers from the contracting company and Guysuco once the commissioning exercise resumes.

When contacted yesterday, Site Representative of the Chinese contracting company, CNTIC, Andrew Jin told Stabroek News that the commissioning which was due to restart yesterday was not done since the Guyana Sugar Corporation had not completed its inspection of the weighing block.

The commissioning of the factory came to a halt due to mechanical failure in early September and Guysuco had sought to assure the media that the multi-million project did not involve major technical component failures or structural deficiencies.

Jin said that basically all the parts that were needed are in place and in the next round of testing the engineers on the ground would be taking a more cautious approach and conducting the test in stages to ensure that all the components were in good working condition. Given the technical problems that were experienced during the earlier testing period, he expects that the commissioning would be a lengthy process.

One of the engineers from the supplier, Fletcher Engineering Group out of the UK is expected to arrive in the country this evening and another from another supplier is due to arrive on Friday. The engineer with responsibility for overseeing the dryers is expected from Australia. According to Jin the engineers will arrive once the commissioning is in process.

Before the factory is handed over, the contractors are required to successfully conduct a 24-hour test and a 72-hour test. Following this, there would be three other 72-hour tests over the next year and the contractor would still be liable for defects arising from those tests.

Work began on the factory in 2005 and it was expected that the project would have been completed by October last year. Since then the commissioning date has been pushed back several times with the last date being August 2, 2008.

Due to the commissioning being pushed back the Guyana government had expressed dissatisfaction with the delay and indicated that it was considering invoking penalties for failure to complete the project in time in keeping with provisions contained in the contractual agreement. Asked whether the penalties have been applied Jin said that he preferred not to speak about damages and liabilities as his focus was getting the new factory operational.

In the meantime the old sugar factory has resumed the crushing of canes.