Pacific Cement expected to be shutdown until July

Pacific Cement Ltd (PCL) announced that it is unable to meet the domestic cement demand in Fiji, due to the age of its factory which is contantly out of action.

Sowani Tuidrola, PCL's chief executive, says they stopped production two weeks ago due to a major breakdown at the factory.

“The local demand here is big, more than what it was in the past and the second reason is that our factory at the moment is facing some mechanical problems. So one of those primary parts of the mill is actually giving up, so that is a ninety-five year old part and to this day in the cement technology basically all these parts are obsolete and we have not really supplied anything, because the factory has gone down.

"We have ordered the parts six months ago through New Zealand, but it was actually manufactured in China, so at the moment that part is leaving China, on its way back to New Zealand for final measurements and machining in NZ before it is going to be shipped to Fiji and we are expecting that around July to be here," he added.

Tuidrola says the company has been operating for the past 60 years, supplying up to 500tpd of cement and due to mechanical issues, it’s difficult to find replacement parts.