Thai Union Frozen TUF president Thiraphong Chansiri (Photo: TUF)
Fire breaks out at TUF shrimp processing plant
THAILAND
Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 02:50 (GMT + 9)
One of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL's (TUF) Samut Sakhon plants saw a fire break out over the weekend on 11 February. The company told that the fire only damaged a part of the shrimp processing plant and other production plants in the same area were unaffected.
The plant's effective in-house emergency systems helped put the fire under control quickly. The actual cause of the fire and damage costs remain unknown, but both the plant and facilities are fully insured against any loss and damages caused by a fire.
“There are no heavy damages to the plant assets and no casualties”, said Thiraphong Chansiri, president of TUF. “All kinds of assistance have been put in place and are ready to be provided to affected employees due to the incident.”
“All 2,100 employees of our affected shrimp plant will be relocated to work at our other production plants as well as in our other subsidiaries within Thai Union Group in Thailand”, he added.
Production lines including tuna, sardine/mackerel and cephalopod/salmon have not suffered any damages.
The company denied claims of a leakage of ammonia gas.
The Samut Sakhon shrimp plant is one of the group's two main Thailand-based shrimp processing facilities for export markets; they generated sales worth USD 233 million in 2011, accounting for 7 per cent of the total consolidated sales of Thai Union Group. This plant has a capacity of up to 120 tonnes of whole shrimp.
As the first quarter of each year tends to be a low-season period for the shrimp processing business, the plant's capacity is currently estimated at only 60 per cent.
TUF plans to relocate part of its shrimp processing workers at Samut Sakhon plant to its subsidiary Thai Union Seafood's processing facilities in Songkhla province and other plants in the same area. This move will help the company fulfill outstanding orders and future demand satisfactorily, the firm said.
Related article:
- TUF expects revenues of USD 8 billion for 2020
By Natalia Real
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