Dubai's Al Khaleej sugar refinery, one of the largest in the world, has been shut since February 1 and is likely to reopen around February 25, its managing director Jamal Al Ghurair said.

The refinery, which last year had a production capacity of about 1.5 million tonnes, had been shut mainly due to a low premium of white sugar prices over raw sugar prices, he said.

Subdued physical demand for sugar due to high prices, has weighed on the whites-over-raws premium, a measure of refining profitability.

'The refinery has been shut since Feb. 1 and we will be back in production hopefully on Feb. 25,' Ghurair told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the three-day Kingsman Dubai sugar conference.

'The main reason is that the whites-over-raws premium is not so good. We are using this opportunity to do maintenance and upgrades,' he added.-Reuters