World Grain - July 2012 - 12

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Cargill to build its largest feed mill in Korea
SEONGNAM KYUNGGI-DO, KOREA — Cargill Agri Purina held the ground-breaking ceremony for a new feed mill on June 7 at the Pyungtaek Dangjin Habour foreign investment zone in Korea. The new feed mill, which was built to serve livestock industry customers in Korea, constitutes a $91 million investment. The new feed mill is planned to be completed by May 2014. With a production capacity of 870,000 tonnes per year, it will be Cargill’s largest feed mill worldwide. In addition to stateof-the-art technology, Cargill said the new feed mill strives to achieve the highest standards of food and feed safety to serve Korea’s animal nutrition industry. Dr. Lee Bo Kyeun, president and chief executive ofﬁcer of Cargill Agri Purina Korea, said, “Our new feed mill is a signiﬁcant investment that reafﬁrms our commitment to the sustainable growth and prosperity of Korea’s feed and livestock industry. We have been a leader in Korea’s feed industry for more than 45 years, and the new feed mill will enable us to better serve our customers with advanced technology and high quality, safe animal feed.

Viterra’s second-quarter results reach record levels
CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA — Viterra Inc. announced on June 12 that its net earnings for the second quarter of 2012 more than doubled to C$67 million (C$0.18 per share), compared to C$30 million (C$0.08 per share) in the same three-month period last year. The company’s EBITDA was a record C$185 million for the quarter, an improvement of 43% compared to C$129 million in the second quarter of ﬁscal 2011 as all three business segments reported improvements in the quarter. Viterra agreed in March to sell itself to Baar, Switzerland-based Glencore for C$6.1 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed this summer. “Viterra continues to deliver robust results, demonstrating the strength of the company’s integrated business model and dedicated employees around the world,” commented Mayo Schmidt, Viterra’s president and chief executive ofﬁcer. “We are very proud of the successful business we have built and the contribution we have made to the industry and the communities in which we operate. Viterra’s value has been recognized by our global agricultural peers with the recent acquisition interest and the signiﬁcant premium being paid by Glencore to acquire the company.” The Grain Handling and Marketing segment’s EBITDA increased 14% to C$141 million compared to the same period last ﬁscal year. Favorable global agricultural fundamentals supported strong shipping volumes and higher grain handling margins. In Western Canada, shipments increased 17% to 4.3 million tonnes. The year-to-date consolidated global pipeline margin increased to C$35.65 per tonne compared to C$32.79 a year earlier. The Processing segment’s EBITDA improved 33% to C$28 million due to improved pasta and canola contributions. The food processing margin for the second quarter increased to C$100.33 per tonne compared to C$98.96 per tonne last Schmidt year. This improvement can be attributed to lower raw material costs in the pasta business and additional higher margin specialty oil sales in the canola business. Viterra’s Agri-Products segment achieved record EBITDA of C$64 million driven by strong fertilizer sales volumes and pricing. Fertilizer margins averaged C$113.51 per tonne for the second quarter of ﬁscal 2012 compared to C$108.76 per tonne in the prior year. In addition, an early start to spring seeding in Western Canada caused some agri-product sales, which would typically occur in the third quarter, to move into the second quarter. On a year-to-date consolidated basis, EBITDA was C$374 million compared to C$339 million in the prior year while net earnings were C$145 million (C$0.39 per share) versus C$131 million (C$0.35 per share) in the corresponding period of ﬁscal 2011.

China drops anti-dumping probe against U.S. DDGS
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S. — The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) said on June 21 that China’s Ministry of Commerce announced it has terminated the anti-dumping investigation against U.S. DDGS exports to China. In the announcement, the Ministry of Commerce stated that the applicants in the case withdrew their petition on May 10, which resulted in the ministry terminating the investigation in accordance with China’s anti-dumping regulations. “As a result, we believe and we anticipate no tariffs will be imposed against DDGS marketed to China from U.S. producers,” said Thomas Dorr, USGC president and chief executive ofﬁcer. The anti-dumping petition was initially ﬁled Dec. 28, 2010. The USGC immediately reached out to U.S. stakeholders to organize a
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response. The council subsequently participated in evidentiary hearings in Beijing and has cooperated fully with the ongoing Chinese disposition of this case. The U.S. exported 195,000 tonnes of DDGS to China in 2009. That grew to 2.3 million tonnes in 2010, and fell back to 1.6 million tonnes in 2011, following announcement of the investigation. Dorr said in 2012, exports are up nearly 84%. “There needs to be a two-way level of transparency in these market opportunities. It’s important for us to have access to the Chinese markets, but it’s equally important we have a long-term insight into what their expectations and demands might be in order that our producers and those that build, sustain and supply our infrastructure our capable of making the necessary investments,” Dorr said.
July 2012 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - July 2012

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