Funding partners include Mid-Iowa Cooperative and AGR Partners.
The new crushing facility, which is costing US$270m to build, will be located at the Butler Logistics Park northwest of Shell Rock. It will crush 110,000 bushels daily, once it is operational in late 2022. It will crush approximately 40 million bushels of soybeans a year, producing more than 900,000 tons of soybean meal and hulls for livestock feed per year, giving growers an additional processing option for their crops.
SRSP said the plant, which will operate 24 hours a day seven days a week, should see 50 to 60 new jobs created locally.
“By securing financing for the new processing plant, we’ve achieved a major milestone in giving local soybean producers greater access to opportunities in the global supply chain,” said Mid-Iowa Cooperative CEO Mike Kinley.
Wesley Sand of AGR Partners commented: “SRSP is well positioned to service the local producers and provide high-quality animal feed to meet the growing demand for protein in the US and globally, as well as renewable feedstocks for a low-carbon energy future.”
Midwest soybean crush expansion trend
The SRSP project is one of other soybean crush expansion projects in the Midwest; earlier this month, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) announced plans to build a soybean crushing plant and refinery in North Dakota.
That facility, which is expected to be operational prior to the 2023 harvest, will meet the demands for soy from food, feed, industrial and biofuel customers, as well as producers of renewable diesel, said the agribusiness giant.
The US$350m site will use state-of-the-art automation technology and will have the capacity to process 150,000 bushels of soybeans per day.
Strategically located in a major soybean producing area, ADM said its global logistics network will enable the facility to access both domestic and global markets for soybean oil and meal.
ADM also plans to invest around US$25m to expand refining and storage capacity at its crush and refining facility in Quincy, Illinois.
Higher prices of soymeal and oil are enticing crushers to process more volumes, and Cargill is also investing US$475m in its US soy crushing operations to meet domestic demand, with an emphasis on its Midwest facilities.
That modernization and expansion work covers crush facilities in seven states.
The aim is to improve operational efficiencies, while also increasing capacity—by 10% at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa site, and by double at the Sidney, Ohio facility.
