Crop Trader ADM Stops Receiving Corn at Nebraska Plant as Grain Piles Up

(Bloomberg) -- Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. will stop receiving corn at a processing plant in Nebraska as the idling of its dry ethanol mill causes grain to pile up.

The Columbus facility will shut Wednesday afternoon due to high inventory, and remain closed through Dec. 27, the company said in a tweet. A spokeswoman for ADM, one of the world’s largest agricultural commodity traders, confirmed the move was “related to the dry mill closure” and that the facility will be back receiving corn on Dec. 28.

ADM announced in April that it was idling two of its dry ethanol mills as the pandemic kept cars off the road, curbing demand for the corn-based biofuel. In November, Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano said the company was planning to keep the facilities in Nebraska and Iowa shut through the winter. The wet mill at Columbus continues to operate, according to the spokeswoman.

The American ethanol industry had already been struggling with poor margins even before the pandemic hit. While margins had recently improved as many producers idled their plants and traffic picked up throughout the summer as cities reopened, the U.S. is now facing a second wave of coronavirus cases.

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