Higher margins in its ag services and oilseeds business helped push ADM to an operating profit of about $6.5 billion for its fiscal year 2022, an increase of 41% over 2021.
“Crushing results were more than double those of the prior year period,” Chief Financial Officer Vikram Luthar told analysts Thursday. “In North America, strong export volumes for soybean meal and growing domestic demand for renewable diesel contributed to strong margins.”
The ag services and oilseeds (ASO) segment of the company contributed nearly $4.4 billion in operating profit for the year, up 58% from 2021. For the quarter, ASO operating profit jumped 46%, from $810 million to $1.18 billion.
ADM CEO Juan Luciano was optimistic that demand for soybean oil and meal would remain strong.
“We continue to see an environment in which crush margins will be strong and highly supportive for many, many years,” he said.
“We still see strong demand for grains globally, good crush margins in Europe and robust demand for meal and soy oil in the U.S.,” he added. However, he said “ethanol will be more volatile, given inventory levels.”
Luthar said ADM expects the next quarter will continue the trends seen in the fourth.
Luciano said he expects China will continue to increase imports, citing low inventories in the country of vegetable oil stocks and an increase in domestic pork prices, which provides incentive for farmers to increase their herds.
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