Overview
STL receives around 3.5 million tonnes of raw sugar per year from 19 sugar mills located between Cairns and Bundaberg. The sugar is transported to the terminals by road or rail. The Cairns, Mourilyan and Bundaberg terminals receive by road, the Townsville and Lucinda terminals receive by rail, and the Mackay terminal receives by both road and rail. The terminals receive sugar 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the crushing season.
The receiving stations are equipped with weighing systems to accurately weigh and record each load. Automatic sampling systems capture samples from each load which are sent to an independent NATA certified laboratory for quality testing.
Sugar is transported from the receiving stations to the storage sheds on fully enclosed conveyors at rates of around 800 tonnes per hour. The receiving conveyor stream at each terminal is fitted with a metal detector to enable foreign objects from the mills to be detected and removed.
Receiving
The Cairns, Mourilyan and Bundaberg terminals receive by road, the Townsville and Lucinda terminals receive by rail, and the Mackay terminal receives by both road and rail. The terminals receive sugar 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the crushing season.
The receiving stations are equipped with weighing systems to accurately weigh and record each load. Automatic sampling systems capture samples from each load which are sent to an independent NATA certified laboratory for quality testing.
Sugar is transported from the receiving stations to the storage sheds on fully enclosed conveyors at rates of around 800 tonnes per hour. The receiving conveyor stream at each terminal is fitted with a metal detector to enable foreign objects from the mills to be detected and removed.
Storage
The terminals have 15 sheds in total which provides our customers with the flexibility to fully occupy a dedicated shed, share a shed with segregated stockpiles, or share a shed with comingled sugar.
The sheds receive sugar via overhead conveyors located under the apex of the shed roof. The conveyors can discharge at any point along the length of the shed, enabling customers to control the quality characteristics of the sugar at every portion of the stockpile.
The sheds are fully enclosed, ventilated and vermin controlled to preserve the quality of the sugar. The sheds are also protected with fire detection, sprinklers and alarm systems that would automatically alert emergency services in the unlikely event of a fire.
Shipping
STL loads around 3.5 million tonnes of sugar per year, onto ships sized from 20,000 DWT to 55,000 DWT.
In each shed, the raw sugar is reclaimed using Front End Loaders that feed the sugar onto a conveyor that runs in a tunnel under the shed floor. The sugar then continues along fully enclosed conveyors to a travelling gantry shiploader at rates of around 1,200 tonnes per hour.
On the way to the ship, the sugar is weighed by a continuous batch weighing system. The system is equipped with another automatic sampling system that captures samples from each load which are sent to an independent NATA certified laboratory for quality testing. The shipping conveyor stream at each terminal is also fitted with a metal detector as a final precaution against contamination.