Global agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has announced that its profits more than doubled in the third quarter of this year to US$526M compared to the same period in 2020.
The company put its strong results down to strong crushing margins and vegetable oil demand.
“Agile execution across our tightly integrated supply chain amid an environment of strong demand and robust crush margins, and continued impressive growth in our nutrition segment, drove our eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year adjusted operating profit growth,” ADM chairman and CEO Juan Luciano said in the 26 October statement.
The company said its Agricultural Services & Oilseeds segment delivered substantially higher results in the period compared to the previous year, with an operating profit of US$618M compared to US$436M in 2020.
“Crushing had substantially higher year-over-year results. [The team delivered] stronger margins in a dynamic environment, which included strong demand for vegetable oil to support our existing food customers, as well as increasing production of renewable diesel,” ADM said.
The strong performance came despite “significantly” lower results in the company's agricultural services segment, due to “lower export volumes caused by Hurricane Ida”, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, operating profit for the company’s nutrition segment rose from US$147M in 2020 to US$176M this year, with increases of 9% contributed from the human nutrition unit.
Speciality Ingredients continued to benefit from strong demand for alternative proteins, the company said, offset by some higher costs.
ADM's total revenue in the third quarter of 2021 reached US$20.34bn compared to US$15.13bn in the same quarter the previous year.
“Our team… have put ADM on track for a strong fourth quarter culminating in a second consecutive year of record earnings per share,” Luciano said in the statement.
