Dubai's al-Khaleej sugar refinery, the biggest in the Gulf, has declared force majeure after a fire earlier this week damaged the conveyor system and storage areas, Managing Director Jamal al-Ghurair said on Thursday.
The fire, which hit the smaller of the company's two warehouses, did not damage the processing plant, Ghurair said.
"I have declared force majeure due to the fire," he told Reuters.
The refinery was expected to take delivery soon of raw sugar from Brazil, Ghurair had said on Wednesday.
He could not say when operations would start again, but a market source familiar with the situation said production would likely resume by Monday.
The refinery would have no problem taking delivery of the Brazil shipment, the source said.
"(Al Khaleej) just declared force majeure just in case (they) fail to meet exports commitments," the source said.
The refinery had been operating at 40 percent below capacity, which stands at 4,500 tonnes per day. Al-Khaleej can hold up to 1.1 million tonnes of raw sugar and is storing 400,000 tonnes.
The company is centrally located in the Middle East to serve customers in the Middle East and North Africa.
The region consumes 12 million tonnes of sugar annually, of which 8.5 million are imported. Some 45 percent of the imports are raw sugar and 55 percent whites.
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