June 20, 2009

ABB Grain to develop Minto grains packing facility

Leading Australian agribusiness, ABB Grain Ltd will start work next month on a new malt house and grains packing facility near Sydney, after receiving development approval and acquiring the necessary land at Minto.

ABB Grain managing director, Michael Iwaniw, said the A$90 million (US$72.5 million) development, comprising a 110,000-tonne capacity malt house and a grains container packing facility for the company's subsidiaries Joe White Maltings and Professional Grain Services (Prograin), would be built on the Hudson site which was previously part of the Macarthur Intermodal Shipping Terminal group (MIST) site.

ABB’s site, acquired for an additional A$10 million (US$8 million), is adjacent to the main southern railway line into the port of Sydney. MIST and related company Independent Railroads of Australia have signed a long-term agreement to provide logistics services for grain delivered into the malt house and container packing facility and, after processing, to Port Botany.

Iwaniw said the facility would take 20,000 trucks off New South Wales roads by maximising rail usage to transport grain.

The Prograin facility will handle 250,000 tonnes a year of malt and other grains for ABB, Joe White Maltings and other customers.

The Prograin facility is scheduled for completion in July next year and the malt house will start receiving barley for malting in the first quarter of 2011.