May 10 (Reuters) - U.S. agricultural commodities trader ADM said on Monday it plans to build a soy-crushing facility and refinery in North Dakota to meet increasing demand for food and renewable fuel.
Companies are counting on rising demand for food as restaurants and the travel sector emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, and for feedstocks to produce biofuels, including renewable diesel. A renewable diesel boom could also have a profound impact on the agricultural sector by increasing demand for oilseeds such as soybeans and canola.
Soybean prices have scaled their highest in more than six years as record crush and record exports are projected to shrink U.S. stocks of the oilseed.
The $350 million crush and refining complex, based in Spiritwood, North Dakota, will have the capacity to process 150,000 bushels of soybeans per day, with the facility expected to be completed prior to the 2023 harvest.
ADM also plans to invest about $25 million to expand refining and storage capacity at its crush and refining facility in Quincy, Illinois. The expanded capacity is expected to be online by the first quarter of 2022.
Rival Cargill Inc said in March it was expanding soybean processing capacity at two large Midwest crush plants and increasing efficiency at five other U.S. facilities.
(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
