Agricultural Products’ crush volumes were up 1.2 million tonnes, due to improved macro-economic conditions in Argentina and the acquisitions in 2015 of the Becancour (Canada) and Warden (USA) plants in the fourth quarter of 2015, Glencore said.
Wheat milling for the first quarter increased to 239,000 tonnes from 236,000 tonnes in the same period of last year.
Oilseed crush volumes increased 91% from 955,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2015 to 1.826 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2016.
Rice milling also increased in the first quarter 19% from 47,000 tonnes in 2015 to 56,000 tonnes in 2016.
Glencore announced on April 6 that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Canada’s largest pension fund, plans to purchase a 40% equity interest in Glencore Agri for $2.5 billion cash.
On March 1 the company’s Agricultural products business segment’s adjusted EBITDA for the year ending Dec. 31, 2015, was $734 million, down 39% compared to $1.2 billion in the same period of last year, the latter benefiting from an exceptionally strong Canadian harvest.
Glencore first announced it was seeking investors in its agriculture unit in September 2015, as part of a plan to reduce its $30 billion debt by $10 billion. In December 2015, the company said it had already reduced debt by $8.7 billion and had revised its debt reduction target to $13 billion.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.
