Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) on Aug. 5 reported second-quarter net earnings of $533 million, or 81¢ per share, which represents an increase of 139% over earnings of $223 million, or 33¢ per share, for the same period last year.

“In the second quarter, the ADM team continued to execute very well and delivered strong results. We capitalized on robust ethanol demand, a recovery of U.S. grain export volumes and continuing strong demand for oilseeds products,” said ADM Chairman and CEO Patricia Woertz. “The team also continues to drive improved returns, with this quarter’s ROIC showing a 200-basis-point improvement over last year. Today, the crops in North America and Europe are developing nicely, so we are preparing for what could be very large harvests.”

The Agricultural Services unit’s operating profit was $203 million, up $122 million from the year-ago period.

Merchandising and handling earnings increased $101 million to $115 million, amid strong U.S. export volumes, partial recovery of a loss reserve, and continued improvement in international merchandising results. ADM said transportation results increased $24 million to $27 million with southbound barge freight utilization driven by strong U.S. exports, and with good northbound utilization.

Milling and other results were essentially flat as lower milling results were offset by strong performance by the edible bean business. 

The corn processing segment’s operating profit of $277 million represented an increase of $69 million from the same period one year earlier. These numbers exclude positive timing effects of $70 million, or 7¢ per share, versus $15 million, or 1¢ per share, in the year-ago period.

ADM said its oilseeds segment’s operating profit of $328 million represented an increase of $18 million from the same period one year earlier. These numbers exclude a negligible charge for cocoa hedge timing effects, versus a gain of $11 million, or 1¢ per share, in the year-ago period.

Crushing and origination operating profit declined $22 million to $163 million. North and South American soybean crushing operations and North American canola crushing operations all saw good volumes and margins. Those were offset by lower results from South American origination amid slower farmer selling.

Refining, packaging, biodiesel and other generated a profit of $119 million for the quarter, up $26 million with good volumes and margins for refined and packaged oils in South America and record results for lecithin and protein specialties. Oilseeds results in Asia for the quarter were down $23 million from the same period last year, principally reflecting lower results from Wilmar International Limited.

Bioproducts results increased $44 million to $141 million driven by strong demand and good margins in ethanol.