This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 17, 2015.

BUTTERWORTH: Having cemented its leading position in the domestic sugar industry, MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd is pumping in some RM110 million this year to up the operating efficiencies of its existing sugar plants to further extend its international footprint.

The country’s largest sugar producer by market share — it controls 64% of local sugar sales — currently has two sugar refining plants, one each in Prai, Penang, and Perlis — from which it produces 1.2 million tonnes of sugar a year with raw materials sourced from Brazil, Australia and Thailand.

The group is in the process of upgrading its Prai refinery plant — together with its warehouse in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, and expects the upgrading works to be completed within the next three years.

“Upon completion, our plant’s manufacturing process will be more efficient and more reliable,” MSM chief operating officer Jason P Hendroff told pressmen after a media familiarisation visit yesterday.

He added that the upgrading exercise involves debottlenecking in Prai and expansion at the Sungai Buloh warehouse, after which the latter should see its capacity double to 10,000 tonnes by 2017 from 5,000 tonnes now.

Next year, the group intends to allocate some RM20 million to its Prai plant to acquire new machinery, said Hendroff.

Meanwhile, the group is targeting to increase its export volume once its third refinery — the RM1.1 billion Tanjung Langsat plant in Johor that is now under construction — is up and running by the third quarter of 2017.