Port of Santos Brazil_ ADM facility
In 2015, the company signed an agreement to continue operations at the port until 2037.
Photo courtesy of ADM.
 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S. — Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) has finished a series of expansions at its export terminal in Santos, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.  After 20 years in Brazil, the project added a second ship loading line and a fourth truck unloading station, allowing for more efficient operations.

It also expanded the facility’s storage capacity from 172,000 tonnes to 194,000 tonnes, and annual handling capacity from 6 million tonnes to 8 million tonnes. The terminal’s environmental controls have also been significantly enhanced, reducing dust particle emissions by 80% through the use of technology that improves the flow and storage of grain.

“ADM is celebrating 20 years in Brazil in 2017, and there is no better way to honor that milestone than with the completion of this major improvement project,” said Scott Fredericksen, president, ADM South America. “Our upgraded terminal in Santos, with increased unloading and loading capabilities, allows us to connect Brazilian grain to world markets more efficiently while setting the industry benchmark for sustainable operations, and creating jobs in the region.”

ADM’s original Santos Port concession began in 1997. In 2015, the company signed an agreement to continue operations at the port until 2037.

ADM
Luciano Botelho, ADM’s president, South American Oilseeds.

“We have expanded to become one of the largest agribusinesses in Brazil, with good reason: Brazilian farmers play a critical role in feeding an expanding global population,” said Luciano Botelho, ADM’s president, South American Oilseeds. “Our strategic growth projects in Brazil — including the modernization at Santos as well as our ongoing improvement project at the Port of Barcarena — are enhancing our ability to move more crops around the world, and to do so more efficiently and sustainably.”

This is the latest in a series of expansions for ADM in the past few months.  In early May, the company reached an agreement to purchase a controlling interest in Industries Centers, an Israeli company specializing in the import and distribution of agricultural feed products. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in Israel. ADM anticipates completing the deal in the coming months.

In late March, the company began talks to acquire Chamtor, a French producer of wheat-based sweeteners and starches. The transaction is expected to close by this summer.

The company also has been focusing on its pet food and animal nutrition services in the past few months. In mid-January, ADM signed an agreement to acquire Crosswind Industries, Inc., a Kansas, U.S.-based producer of dry-expanded, dual-texture, semi-dry and semi-moist treat products for pets.

The company also announced it is investing to expand and modernize its pet food and specialty livestock feed operations in Effingham, Illinois, U.S. The Effingham facility is expected to be fully operational in late 2017 or early 2018.

ADM is one of the largest agribusiness companies in Brazil. With about 3,300 employees in that country, the company processes soybeans in five facilities and sunflower at another, and markets the bottled oil brands Concórdia, Corcovado and Vitaliv. The company also operates a biodiesel plant in Brazil, and more than 40 elevators across the country. ADM is a joint owner of an export terminal in Barcarena, and has a concession to operate a terminal at the Port of Santos. ADM is also building a soy protein production complex next to the company’s existing soybean plant in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul.