Closure of Sugar Refinery Brings End to New York City Suburb’s Working Waterfront

Daniel Katzive (gCaptain) — The historic Domino sugar refinery in Yonkers, New York will cease operations by the end of this year. The closure of the 130-year-old plant will bring an end to barge and bulk ship deliveries to this section of the Hudson, continuing a de-industrialization trend along the river that has been underway for decades.

ASR Group announced the closure on Friday in a recent press release detailing consolidation of the sugar refiner’s operations in the northeast United States. The company is “making strategic operational investments and optimizations to its U.S. business,” according to the statement.

As of last year, the Yonkers plant was receiving about 40 maritime deliveries of raw sugar per year, primarily domestic product brought by dry bulk barges towed up from West Palm Beach, but also occasionally Caribbean sugar delivered by foreign flag bulk ships.

With the closure of the Yonkers plant, demand will be met by ASR’s other refineries, including those in Chalmette, Louisiana and Baltimore, Maryland, both of which the company says have been transitioned to continuous operation. A spokesperson for ASR confirmed that the Baltimore plant will see an increase in shipments by water once the Yonkers facility has closed. The company recently invested $45 million in a new raw sugar warehouse in Baltimore which will open in July and can store 100 million pounds of sugar, according to the spokesperson.

ASR also says it is doubling the size of its Buffalo plant and building a new rail-accessible bulk transfer and liquid melt facility at an unspecified location. The company also points to last year’s acquisition of IngredientsPlus, a Rochester-based manufacturer with facilities in western New York and western Pennsylvania. All these facilities will receive refined sugar from the Baltimore and Chalmette plants.

As for the Yonkers property itself, its future is not yet known, but city officials appear to have little interest in attracting a new industrial user to this deep-water-accessible site. “We see this as another opportunity to continue the transformation happening in Yonkers,” said Mayor Mike Spano in a statement on social media. “Housing and recreation are the best uses of the Hudson waterfront these days, and our role will be to see that the interests of all Yonkers residents are met going forward,” he said.

The Yonkers plant is one of only a handful of manufacturers still operating and utilizing maritime facilities along the once heavily-industrialized river. About 20 miles north of Yonkers, the CertainTeed wallboard plant brings in gypsum regularly by bulk ship from Spain. Further up, near Albany, Innovative Surface Solutions produces de-icing solution from tanker-loads of magnesium chloride, and a cement plant continues to operate in Ravenna, NY, supplying terminals in the northeast by barge.

While factories are few and far between, the Ports of Albany and Coeymans remain in heavy use for bulk and specialty cargo, and the river remains a major corridor for oil products, stone, scrap metal, and aggregate.

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