OREANDA-NEWS. June 02, 2010. Astarta <AST PW BUY>, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, plans to increase its production capacity by 6.4 kt/day to 27 kt/day by September 2010, the company announced in its press release June 1. Higher capacity will come from the targeted modernization efforts at the existing facilities to remove the current bottlenecks that contain the production. The cost of modernization is expected at UAH 85mn. Furthermore, the company will upgrade the raw sugar processing lines at its mills that have been out of use for a while in preparation for the next year sugar campaign.

Millennium Capital: the news is positive for Astarta since it does outline the steps the company will take to realize its plan to produce 320 kt of sugar announced in March 2010. Specifically, this additional capacity will match the 27% increase in beet acreage achieved earlier. Furthermore, Millennium Capital considers the timeline proposed by the company as adequate since the modernization efforts will be confined to replacing the limited number of units of equipment at each plant.