Roxas Holdings seeks OK to import molasses

MANILA, Philippines — Listed bio-sugar and bio-energy company Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI) is seeking the government’s nod to import molasses  to help arrest its declining bottomline.

RHI president and chief executive officer Hubert Tubio said they were just waiting for an official order that would allow them to import after seeking help from House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“We were given the green light by  Congress for as long as the ethanol produced from  feed stocks will be re-exported,” Tubio said in a briefing after the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday.

SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica, however, clarified that the final decision would come from the Department of Energy.

RHI is having problems with its bioethanol production as sugar farms are not producing enough molasses, the main raw material.

The company operates Roxol Bioenergy Corp. and San Carlos Bioenergy Corp. Inc., the country’s biggest ethanol producers with a combined capacity of 285,000 liters per day.

Tubio said RHI is looking at importing the feed stocks from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India and even Brazil. For the re-export, the firm is eyeing China and Japan.

“Hopefully it will ease up our cost and improve the capacity utilization of our facilities,” he added.

For the current crop year, RHI expects a lower net income amid lower production due to El Niño.

In the first quarter, RHI incurred a loss of P197 million, five times the P30 million loss reported in the previous crop year.