Bunge says damaged natgas pipeline caused Indiana soy plant closure
CHICAGO, Jan 3 (Reuters) - A soybean processing facility in Decatur, Indiana, operated by global grain handler Bunge stopped operations last week following damage to a natural gas pipeline that feeds the site, the company said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday.
Bunge said it expected the Decatur plant to be operational "soon."
A notice on a customer website on Tuesday estimated that the facility would resume operations by this weekend.
Bunge, based in St. Louis, said it was taking "appropriate precautions" to ensure the safety of employees and the community, and was working to repair the pipeline. No one was injured, a Bunge spokesperson said.
The Decatur plant outage slowed what has been a brisk U.S. soybean processing pace since the 2023 harvest. U.S. crushers processed their largest volumes of soybeans yet in October and November, according to the National Oilseed Processors Association.
The Decatur facility is one of nine soy processing plants operated by Bunge in the United States and one of two that the world's largest oilseed processor owns in Indiana. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; additional reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; editing by Barbara Lewis)
