“The project includes 12 grain elevators along the Danube, one inland-storage elevator in Western Romania and a joint-venture export elevator in the Black Sea port of Constanta,” reads the press release.
The network is similar to ADM’s operations along the Paraguay River and Mississippi River, and includes three river elevators at Giurgiu, and one river elevator each at Braila, Constanta, Corabia, Oltenita, Orsova and Zimnicea, said the company.
According to the press release, Alfred C. Toepfer International (ACTI) will construct new elevators at Calarasi, Giurgiu and Moldova Noua and has already acquired a barge fleet to connect the network of river elevators to the joint-venture export elevator recently finished in Constanta. The German company also plans to construct elevators at Bordusani, Corabia and Galati.
“We see great opportunities to increase our origination and transportation capabilities along the Danube River in Romania, which has become a net exporter of grain and oilseeds over the past several years. The Danube River export project creates an end-to-end network, giving us the ability to originate crops directly from farmers, transport and store them, and ultimately export them to markets around the world. This project is strategically important as we expand our origination network in Eastern Europe. The storage facilities and export elevator are well positioned to give us additional capacity to move crops along the Danube River and to the Black Sea, while the addition of Toepfer-owned barges provides us with greater control of our supply chain and helps us achieve favorable transportation margins in what can be a volatile market,” said Gary Towne, chairman of the management board of ACTI.
ACTI was set up in 1919 and has been active in trading grain, oilseeds and feedstuffs. The company has 2,000 employees and trade more than 42 million tons of commodities annually, reads the press release.
ADM first invested in ACTI in 1983 and owns 80% of the company, with the remaining 20% owned by French farming cooperative Union InVivo.
In the fiscal year ended June 30, Archer Daniels Midland registered net sales of $81 billion. The company has 30,000 employees and 265 processing plants.
Alfred C. Toepfer International Romania, headquartered in Bucharest, registered sales of 1.265 billion lei (about EUR300 million) in 2009. (EUR1=RON4.2356)