An explosion at a joint venture facility in Argentina will likely lead to reduced soybean meal and soybean oil capacity for several weeks, AgriCensus reported Oct. 21.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, October 20, at the Terminal 6 facility in San Lorenzo, a joint venture between global agribusiness giant Bunge and Argentine agricultural products company Aceitera General Deheza SA (AGD), AgriCensus said.
Bunge confirmed the incident but declined to comment on the level of damage to the plant, AgriCensus said. However, market and trade sources said the explosion occurred in a 10,000 ton/day crusher drying unit.
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“No employees were injured and the situation is under control. We will be conducting a detailed investigation of the incident to determine the cause and when we can expect to safely resume operations,” Bunge told AgriCensus in a statement.
Supplies of soybean meal and oil increased by 2-3% the day after the incident at the Up River port complex.
The complex housed the world's largest crushing center and was the largest exporter of soybean oil and soybean meal, AgriCensus said.
The Bunge/AGD plant was not in operation at the time of the incident due to a 24-hour strike at the facility.
“The damage is mainly to the drying unit and is not major, so it should not cause major delays (in exports). I think delays would/could be due to safety/security reasons for people getting back to work,” said a Buenos Aires source cited by AgriCensus.
“It was the toaster on a line in the crushing plant. Port facilities are not affected, nor is the second line. Still assessing the damage and not very clear on when they will resume operations,” another source said.
It was reported that commercial sources estimated repairs would take two months, however, any reduction in crushing volume would likely be minor due to a predicted increase in capacity on the unaffected second line and a general excess capacity at the port complex, AgriCensus said.
Crush rates in Argentina in September were 6% below the five-year average due to a lack of producer sales.
Source: OFI Magazine
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