TIANJIN, CHINA — At least 20 soybean crushing plants in China ceased operations last week to comply with curbs on industrial power consumption, setting off an increase in soymeal prices in the country, according to Reuters.

Among the companies with operations that were shuttered were Louis Dreyfus Co. (LDC) and Bunge Ltd.

According to Reuters, the LDC facility in Tianjin closed on Sept. 22. It has a daily crushing capacity of 4,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, Bunge, which also has a crushing facility in Tianjin, told Reuters that it “responded to the government mandate but total production is not materially different from what we expected.”

Reuters also cited a soymeal buyer with a major feed company who said about five plants in the eastern province of Jiangsu also have closed.

As a result of the closings, cash soymeal prices have seen a spike and Reuters noted concerns for further price hikes as China approaches the week-long National Day holidays set to begin Oct. 1.

“Those shutdowns impact our plans,” one soymeal purchaser told Reuters. “This is normally the time when feed mills need to build stocks ahead of the holidays.”

Reuters said China’s provincial authorities have stepped up enforcement of emissions curbs in recent weeks, leading to strict limits on power loads that have hampered production across a broad range of industrial consumers.