Barama Company Limited is all set to restart its plywood production from June 1, 2011, and is now going through a testing phase, allowing the product to be on the local market, with the aim of recommencing export production by December.
This is according to Barama’s Head of Corporate Affairs and Planning, Neil Chand, who spoke to the Guyana Chronicle yesterday.
“We are already in the testing stage and plywood production will begin full scale on June 1,” he said, when he hopes the company will be fully satisfying local demand for plywood.
Chand said that the company was confident in its ability to meet the local demand for plywood with the full recommencement of operations.
Barama undertook rehabilitative work on its boiler which was damaged due to human error, rendering the plywood plant out of commission for some months. The company aims to have 600 cubic metres of plywood back on the local market by June.
Because of the breakdown of the boiler and the cessation of operations, the company has suffered losses in the neighbourhood of US$15M. Barama had lain off 274 employees because of the closure of its only plywood plant. The company had initially said that the closure of the plant could be as long as 20 months.
Speaking at an April tour of the facility, Chand said, “We also want to thank the government and other stakeholders who have given us the necessary support and guidance in taking us where we are today. When the disaster happened in October, everyone was concerned as to the future of the plywood industry in Guyana. Today, we have managed to overcome that challenge to an extreme level, where we feel that plywood could be something once again on the local and export markets, earning foreign revenue for Guyana.”
According to Chand, the company did not stop any other operation other than the plywood operation.
“We maintained our operations; and with that, we are confident in moving forward, we will see greater efficiency and productivity in our operations. We have a new integrated approach and with that, we are confident that we will have greater returns,” Chand said last month.