MSM group chief executive officer Syed Feizal Syed Mohammad
KUALA LUMPUR: Sugar refiner MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd
(MSM) will have a better chance of returning to the black sustainably in 2023, said group chief executive officer Syed Feizal Syed Mohammad.
He said MSM is delighted with the government’s announcement allowing the local sugar industry to produce pure white refined sugar with prices determined by market forces without price controls.
Syed Feizal said the group has a lot of hard work and needs the government’s accommodation to address structural changes.
"This will enable us to be more resilient against high input costs. Therefore MSM will continue to endeavour in returning to the black sustainably,” he said during MSM’s 12th Annual General Meeting press conference here today.
Syed Feizal said he expects that prevailing high input costs will challenge the group’s results but will pursue returning to profit with strong revenues as the company begins to realise the gains from higher production volumes.
"We also expect export volumes to grow its Asia Pacific footprint from the present six per cent to about 12-15 per cent. In addition, we will step-up production and distribution of our profitable liquid sugar and premix business into major markets like China.
"Global sugar prices have been bullish due to food security concerns and global demand outstripping production. MSM will also be able to offer break bulk shipping beginning July this year for large volume deals into China, Bangladesh and Indonesia,” he said.
Syed Feizal said the food business appears to be an attractive proposition due to global population growth trends, food scarcity and the need for food security.
"We believe that there will be opportunities in the food value chain that we can explore and create further value by leveraging on our strong network of customers and expertise staying midstream in managing manufacturing plants,” he said.
Also present at the press conference were chairman Datuk Syed Hisham Syed Wazir, group chief operating officer Hasni Ahmad and chief financial officer Dr Mazatul’ Aini Shahar Abdul Malek Shahar.
In a separate statement, MSM said MSM Sugar Refinery (Johor) Sdn Bhd (MSM Johor) is ready for higher production and product varieties following the completion of its technical turnaround programme.
"Completing the improvement programme will not only boost the production utilisation factor but also align with MSM Johor’s vision of becoming a world-class sugar refining centre with full reliability and availability to refine at its effective design production capacity of one million tonnes per annum,” it said.
MSM recorded a loss before tax of RM179 million for FY2022 against profit before tax of RM81 million for FY2021 while seeing a 14 per cent increase in revenue of RM2.57 billion for FY2022 compared to RM2.26 billion in FY2021. - Bernama
