US agribusiness giant Cargill said on Friday it was investing $6.4 million at its grain elevator complex in Tuscola, Illinois, to expand rail service and ship more corn and soybeans to the US south-east and Gulf of Mexico ports. The project, to be completed in the spring of 2013, will add a rail loop around a perimeter of 200 acres to accommodate 110 grain cars, about a mile-long stretch.
Cargill has operated the massive central Illinois grain elevator, located about 150 miles south of Chicago, since 1969. The complex has a total of 7.5 million bushels of interior storage capacity plus 4 million bushels of temporary storage outside. The elevator ships grain from the heart of the Corn Belt to eastern livestock producers, southeast soybean processing plants and Gulf export elevators, the company said in a statement.
Minneapolis-based Cargill is among the largest privately held companies in the world. It has been investing heavily in grain storage and transportation in recent years in the heart of the Corn Belt, as grain prices soared with biofuels and export demand.