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Ownership of sugar mills has been concentrated in recent years. In 1980, 19 companies operated 33 mills, whereas today 10 companies operate 25 mills. In 2006 farmer cooperatives / owned mills produced 40% of Australia’s raw sugar (Sugar Industry Oversight Group, 2006). Table 5.1 Ownership of Australian sugar mills Ownership Structure Australian Milling Companies Sugar Mills Public Companies MSF Sugar Maryborough; Mulgrave; South Johnstone; Tableland Public Unlisted Companies / Grower-Owned Mills Co-operative / Grower-Owned Mills Sucrogen Tully Sugar Limited Mackay Sugar Co-operative Association Limited Mossman Central Mill Company Limited Bundaberg Sugar Ltd Isis Central Sugar Mill Co Limited New South Wales Sugar Milling Cooperative Limited Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Milling Association Limited Victoria; Macknade; Invicta; Pioneer; Kalamia; Inkerman; Plane Creek Tully Farleigh, Racecourse , Marian Mossman Bingera, Millaquin Isis Condong, Broadwater and Harwood Proserpine Private Companies W H Heck & Sons Pty Limited Rocky Point Despite deregulation of the industry over 90% of raw sugar exports are marketed through Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL). Eight mills supply raw sugar to QSL on a rolling 3 year contract know as Raw Sugar Supply Agreements (RSSAs). The Raw Sugar Supply Agreements (RSSAs) are the supply contracts under which QSL aggregates and pools raw sugar supplies, which is sold on the world market. In addition QSL provides pricing, financing, risk management, shipping and logistics services to it sugar mill customers. Mills contract to supply raw sugar to QSL on a rolling three-year basis, and at the end of June each year have the opportunity to not roll over their contract, effectively giving three years' notice of their intention to withdraw from QSL's pool (QSL, 2011). An example of sugarcane milling, harvesting, transporting and growing arrangements is provided below for the NSW sugar industry. NSW is of special relevance to the mallee industry given their move from burnt cane harvesting to whole crop harvesting to increase cogeneration capacity and the impact this had on factory operations, harvest and transport efficiencies and profitability. 133
Sugar Industry Illustrative Example (NSW Sugar Industry) Milling Overview: Broadwater Mill is located on the Richmond River in Northern New South Wales, south of Ballina, and began its operations in 1881. Broadwater mill is one of 3 sugar mills owned and operated by the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative Limited. Other milling interests include Condong Mill (Tweed River) and Harwood Mill (Clarence River). The NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative Limited (Sunshine Sugar) was formed when cane growers purchased the three NSW sugar mills from CSR in 1978. In 2008 a partnership was formed with Delta Electricity (Sunshine Electricity) to commission two cogeneration power plants at Broadwater and Condong, which generate renewable electricity primarily from bagasse and supplemented by wood biomass materials. Total construction costs on the upgrades were $220 M. Drivers for this initiative included the need to replace existing boilers (mill), the opportunity of a diversified income stream (renewable energy market) and productivity improvements (i.e. based on less sugar loss from whole of crop harvest). A number of factors have limited the success of this venture and whole of crop harvesting. Broadwater Mill on the Richmond River (source: Sunshine Sugar) Milling Statistics & Cane Supply: The Broadwater Mill has a capacity to crush over 1,000,000 tonnes of sugarcane annually with an average of approximately 835,000 tonnes from 2005 – 2010 (Variety Productivity Report, 2010 season Broadwater). The mill operates at a crushing rate of 260 tonnes per hour with a maximum of 280 tonnes per hour. The mill relies on 5,000 – 6,000 tonnes per week of biomass to maintain electricity generation operations. In comparison to the power plants at Broadwater and Condong, other cogeneration projects within the sugar industry have not been based on whole of crop harvesting. These projects rely on significant supplies of surplus bagasse from a larger cane supply area. Cogeneration: Since commissioning in 2008 a number of factors have impacted on the success of whole of crop harvesting and the cogeneration venture. The industry in 2010 reverted back from whole of crop harvesting and the cogeneration plant went into receivership (from 2010). The main factors limiting whole of crop harvesting and processing include: i) the need to develop a cost effective trash separation plant at the mill and ii) high transport costs due to lower than expected bulk densities for whole of crop cane. The main factor significantly influencing the feasibility of the cogeneration venture is a low REC price due to flooding of the market through solar initiatives (REC price reduced to $25) and adequate biomass supply (primarily influenced by whole of crop experience and supplementary materials) . 134
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Sustainable Biomass Supply Chain fo
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Foreword This report provides an as
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include business development (new p
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Acknowledgments The authors would l
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4.1 Product Options and Supply Chai
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Table 4.2 Assessment of current val
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Figure 3.4 Tracked rigid self-prope
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Executive Summary What the report i
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• Biomass production potential of
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• As the Industry expands, the mo
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Harvesting, transport and storage s
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Biomass processing, supply chain pl
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Key barriers to biomass industries
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Crop-Biomass Production Production
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Figure 1.1 The cropping and pasture
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Table 1.1 Mallee species used for p
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1.1.4 Growth Cycle Mallee System Ma
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northern New South Wales (where it
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Almost 80% of the industry now cuts
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Bark has relatively high ash but as
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Carbon sinks Planting of mallees to
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Table 1.5(a) State Land area devote
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out the fluctuations in farm income
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Mallee system Most of the mallee bi
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inconclusive result may have been d
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For a sustainable woody crop indust
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changed significantly since they we
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Figure 2.2 Biosystems Engineering p
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Whole-of-crop harvesting represents
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During the last decade the harvesti
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single row, as this would improve t
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2.2.2.2 Weight Sugar System The Aus
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Table 2.1 Harvester Comparison Tabl
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The quality of cut may be less impo
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ate than a 170 tonne/ha crop of sta
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Dry Leaf 6.1 - 3.5 17.0 58.9 53.2 T
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Bulk density will be a key consider
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Table 2.4 EM levels in cane supply
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L/T L/T 60 0.97 0.71 80 0.92 0.66 1
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Total 7.5-26 16.5 Mallee System The
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• waiting for mill delivery of em
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perhaps at 10 - 20 km intervals. Th
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transport arrangements, harvest gro
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contractors and growers, and the fa
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experience of the sugar industry wi
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Table 2.11 Alternative harvest paym
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onto the harvester. BR+F still send
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Repairs and maintenance 2.10 Capita
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Figure 2.14 and Table 2.14 describe
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Sichter et al. (2005)), harvest and
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Transport efficiencies may be possi
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3. Transport and Storage Systems Tr
Page 105 and 106: same time, the potential problems o
Page 107 and 108: Figure 3.3 Articulated self-propell
Page 109 and 110: • The harvester will not have any
Page 111 and 112: Figure 3.7 Gross mass compared with
Page 113 and 114: external factors dramatically impac
Page 115 and 116: Figure 3.11 The effect of haulout t
Page 117 and 118: 3.3 Road Transport 3.3.1 Configurat
Page 119 and 120: Figure 3.15 shows an example of the
Page 121 and 122: Road distance one way < 20 km 70 km
Page 123 and 124: Haul distance is largely outside th
Page 125 and 126: 3.6 Recommendations The nature of t
Page 127 and 128: • The strategy offered lower tota
Page 129 and 130: sugarcane billets are such that wit
Page 131 and 132: • Transfer the whole tree product
Page 133 and 134: Figure 4.5(b) Energy balance of con
Page 135 and 136: 2010). Table 4.2 presents a summary
Page 137 and 138: 4.4.2 Activated charcoal Activated
Page 139 and 140: Nett Product Value ($/t) $475.00 $
Page 141 and 142: Table 4.9 presents an estimation of
Page 143 and 144: • Oil from leaf @ $2/kg • Synth
Page 145 and 146: • The mallee oil would be extract
Page 147 and 148: 5. Industry and Business Structures
Page 149 and 150: is conducted into tariff levels on
Page 151 and 152: Bx is % brix in first expressed jui
Page 153 and 154: Hildebrand (2002) estimated that th
Page 155: also has a flow on effect to the sp
Page 159 and 160: with super size multi-lift bins ove
Page 161 and 162: farmer vs. harvester) is the next l
Page 163 and 164: 6. Supply Chain Planning and Manage
Page 165 and 166: Figure 6.1 Building blocks of the s
Page 167 and 168: weighed against the costs of operat
Page 169 and 170: • There is close contact between
Page 171 and 172: 6.4 Planning, Management Tools and
Page 173 and 174: • Harvest and transport logistics
Page 175 and 176: interface. The system allows users
Page 177 and 178: Case Study 6.2 - Model Application
Page 179 and 180: Relationships between sectors and p
Page 181 and 182: 7. Supply Chain Modelling and Econo
Page 183 and 184: It was assumed that there was a fif
Page 185 and 186: Table 7.2 Scenario two capital equi
Page 187 and 188: Table 7.4 Fuel burn rates harvester
Page 189 and 190: Figure 7.5 Effect of capital equipm
Page 191 and 192: Figure 7.7 Effect of annual tonnes
Page 193 and 194: 30 1.8 7.0 12.3 17.5 50 1.1 4.3 7.6
Page 195 and 196: 8. Conclusions and Recommendations
Page 197 and 198: Biomass bulk density has a large im
Page 199 and 200: Vehicles used for infield haulout w
Page 201 and 202: This can be compared with harvest a
Page 203 and 204: While diversification can add value
Page 205 and 206: Appendix 1: Comparative Assessment
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and transport conditions. Billet le
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that cane production is the most pr
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on sugar only, other proceeds (mola
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References Agnew, J 2002. A Partici
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Enecon 2001. Integrated Tree Proces
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Keating, BA, Antony, G, Brennan, LE
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Ridge, DR and Linedale, AL, 1997. T
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Willcox, T, Hussey, B, Chapple, D a
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