James THE NATIONAL Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) will be asked to rescue local foundry, Caribbean Casting and Engin-eering Limited, Kingston, to avoid a serious threat to the 2000/2001 sugar crop.
NIBJ president Rex James confirmed yesterday a proposal to rescue the foundry will be voted on by the board of directors tomorrow. However, he pointed out that because the company was a private one, the bank would have to "tread cautiously".
Caribbean Casting has been inactive for several months as the management battles huge debts and overheads. The company, which does metal casting for the sugar factories, had to stop production two months ago after a $6 million light bill broke the back of its survival efforts and sent home its 150 workers.
The company is a very important cog in the economic wheel, especially the sugar industry. The management and the union, the NWU, had appealed to the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Techno-logy, Phillip Paulwell for assistance to keep it operating.
Consultant to the Minister, Peter King, had been engaged in the discussions with the NIBJ. He said the Ministry had pulled together as many interested parties as possible to do a proper evaluation: "It's not just sugar which would be affected because they also do work for the JPSCo and the bauxite companies."
He said the company was the largest of its type in the Caribbean, and had exported to Hawaii in the past and has export orders for Guyana. He said its closure would have a "significant negative impact" on the economy.
Managing director Dennis Fletcher earlier this year blamed the sugar industry for much of his company's financial problems. He said while the foundry continued to do work for the factories, the economic problems facing sugar had reflected on payment, resulting in the company being unable to meet overheads. Ironically, it is Caribbean Casting which could now be blamed for the failure of the 2000/2001 sugar crop unless a way is found to reopen the factory by December.
Derrick Heaven, executive chairman of the Government-owned Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ), which owns Bernard Lodge, Frome and Monymusk factories, said yesterday that unless Caribbean Casting reopens soon, the 2000/2001 crop could be seriously affected.
Mr. Heaven said mill rollers from both Frome and Monymusk, required for the start of the new crop next month, were still lying inside the Caribbean Casting plant and their was no hope of a foreign option: "When they stopped production, they had already started working on the rollers. So we can't send them abroad," he said.
