Bunge Creates Joint Venture to Build River Grain Terminal in Illinois

The facility will have more than a million bushels of permanent storage and will be able to handle high volumes of multiple commodities simultaneously, providing maximum flexibility.

4/12/2011 --- Bunge North America, the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited, announced that it has created a joint venture with SCF Marine Inc., a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings Inc., to build a river grain terminal in Fairmont City located in St. Clair County, Illinois. The joint venture, Bunge-SCF Grain, LLC, will build a state-of-the-art facility on the Mississippi River capable of receiving grains, soybeans, their byproducts and other bulk commodities and efficiently shipping them either domestically or to the export market.

"Meeting the growing global demand for commodities requires not only more infrastructure, but improved infrastructure, and everything from site selection to facility design is being done to make sure we can efficiently serve farmers and customers," said Bailey Ragan, vice president, Bunge Grain, Fertilizer and Biofuels.  "The terminal will have high-speed unloading and loading capabilities and is located in one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the Midwest on a site where we have great rail, truck and barge access."

The facility will have more than a million bushels of permanent storage and will be able to handle high volumes of multiple commodities simultaneously, providing maximum flexibility.  The site is the northernmost river point that provides year-round, ice-free river access for barges as well as allows for deepwater barge loading.

"This facility will help us maximize the efficiency of barge and boat assets," said Tim Power, president of SCF Marine.  "We will be able to receive products via rail and truck and transload them directly onto barges for delivery to domestic locations or to the Port of South Louisiana for export."

Alberici Constructors, Inc. is the design-build general contractor for the project.  Construction is expected to take about a year and will employ about 100 people.  Once operational, the facility will have 12-20 full-time employees.