TEGMA
TEGMA Newsletter
June 2012
In This Issue
2012 Fall Symposium
E15 Approval
Wheat Production Strong
TIGER IV Grants
Haverty Inducted
New GIPSA Head
CoBank Sees Shift
Recent Transactions
Viterra acquired by Glencore
 
Commodities broker Glencore, backed by partners Richardson International and Agrium Inc., has agreed to buy Canada's Viterra in a cash deal valuing the country's largest grain handler at $6.1 billion. The takeover requires the Canadian government's approval, and a competition review of Glencore's side deals to sell some assets to Agrium and Richardson International Limited will begin after Glencore's transaction closes, which is looking to be in August of 2012.
 
 
Marubeni to Purchase Gavilon 

 

Marubeni, the Japanese trading house, said on May 29th that it would buy the American grain merchant Gavilon Group for $3.6 billion, as it looks to ship American agricultural products to fast-growing Asian markets. The Gavilon acquisition would allow Marubeni to become a top global player in grains, handling over 55 million tons annually, according to a statement from the Japanese company. The deal for Gavilon would also give Tokyo-based Marubeni far greater control of supply and distribution in the United States, the world's largest agricultural exporter. 
TEGMA Welcomes
New Members

TEGMA is pleased to welcome two new members since the January 2012 Annual Meeting.

 

AgMark, LLC

Level 2 Active Member

Jeff Bechard & Carrie Williams

 

AgMark is a rail grain marketing company headquartered in Beloit, Kansas; owned by three cooperatives including Farmway Coop, Cloud County Coop, and Randall Farmers Union Coop with 21 grain elevator facilities in North Central Kansas.  

 

Metro Ports Assoc.

Associate Member

Jon Allyn, Jill Parker, Jim Dillman & Charles Tillotson

 

Metro Ports is an experienced terminal operator and stevedoring company with multiple locations nationwide. As a diverse company, they move a wide range of bulk and breakbulk cargos including petroleum coke, coal, cement, aggregates, potash, fertilizer products, borax, bauxite, RORO, military, steel, wind energy components, yachts and project cargo.  

 

We look forward to their active participation in the association.

TEGMA Leadership

Officers

 

Chairman

Todd McQueen

The Scoular Company 

 

First Vice Chairman

Mark Huston

Louis Dreyfus Commodities 

 

Second Vice Chairman

Brian Mehrmann

Gavilon Grain 

 

 

Board of Directors

 

Greg Edelblute

Cereal Food Processors

 

Roger Fray

West Central Cooperative

 

Pete Goetzmann

ADM Grain Company

 

Barbara Haertling

BNSF Railway

 

Paul Hammes

Union Pacific

 

J.L. (Joey) Meibergen III

W.B. Johnston Grain Co.

 

Tom Meyer

Kansas Grain Inspection Service

 

Ryan Pellett

JD Heiskell 

 

Staff

 

President

Bob Petersen

 

Director of Member Services 

Erica Venancio

 

Director of Communications

Abigail Hiles

 

 

Contact Info

 

TEGMA Office

P.O. Box 26426

Kansas City, MO 64196

 

Tel: (816) 569-4020

Fax: (816) 221-8189

 

Issue: Q2.2
June 29, 2012
2012 Fall Transportation Symposium Update
Save the Date for TEGMA's Annual Fall Transportation Symposium, thisFall2012Logo year held at the beautiful Four Seasons at Los Colinas in Dallas, Texas, September 13-14.

General Meeting and Registration Information will go out to members in a few weeks. Until then, TEGMA is happy to announce its first two speakers:

John Lanigan, Executive VP & CMO, BNSF
Roger Wynkoop, President, Trinity Leasing

TEGMA plans to round out the schedule with two more industry speakers and a panel discussion.

TEGMA's Fall Symposium, a popular industry tradition, shares the dates with the National Grain Car Council whose members meet on Thursday afternoon, TEGMA members are invited to attend, as well. TEGMA will hold its meeting on Friday morning, with Council members invited to attend. The groups co-host a reception on Thursday evening, September 13, with all invited to attend.

Mark your calendars for September 13-14, and watch your email in the coming weeks for registration information.  We hope to see you there!
E15 Receives Final Approval from EPA

The Obama Administration gave its final approval for the sale of E15 ethanol blends under the waiver conditions set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) said on June 15.

 

At an announcement on June 15 by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the administration stated that all regulatory hurdles to E15 had been addressed by the ethanol industry. Specifically, EPA has notified the RFA that its E15 Retail Advisory addresses the agency's concerns with residual fuel left in gas pumps with just a single hose. The advisory is now incorporated into the RFA's E15 Retailer Handbook. The E15 Retailer Handbook is referenced by RFA's EPA-approved misfueling mitigation plan - a strategy required by EPA to ensure E15 is being appropriately and legally offered to consumers. To help with compliance, the RFA is also offering the approved and required E15 pump labels free of charge to retailers.

 

To read more on E15's Approval and the Retailer Handbook, CLICK HERE.

Wheat Production in Kan. Looks Strongest in 9 years

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday hasn't changed with its May estimate that the Kansas wheat crop would produce 387 million bushels.

 

wheatThat's 40% more than the 2011 crop, according to the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. If that forecast holds true, the 2012 crop could boast the highest production since 2003. The average per-acre yield on 9 million acres is predicted to be 43 bushels to the acre, the two wheat organizations said.

 

In Clay County farmers planted "slightly more" wheat acres than they did last year, said AgMark grain marketing specialist David Pfizenmaier. Farmway elevators are prepared for it, he said.

 

To read more, CLICK HERE.

Impending TIGER IV Grants Leaked 
The U.S. Department of Transportation soon will announce the recipients of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) IV program grants, for which the federal government has set aside a total of $500 million. In the meantime, several railroads and politicians have issued press releases touting successful grant applications. 

To view the list of known funded grants, CLICK HERE.
Kansas City Southern's Haverty among National Railroad Hall of Fame inductees 
Mike HavertyOn June 16, Kansas City Southern Executive Chairman Michael Haverty, John Walker Barriger III and Major Gen. Greville Mellen Dodge will be inducted into the National Railroad Hall of Fame for life achievements and careers that span the scope of the U.S. railroad industry.

Haverty began his career with Missouri Pacific Railroad and later joined the Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe Railroad, where he rose through the ranks to become president and chief operating officer.

In 1995, Haverty became head of KCS, where he forged the rail network known as NAFTA Railway that links the commercial and industrial centers of the United States, Canada and Mexico, providing North American shippers with a viable alternative to other railroads and transportation carriers, Hall of Fame officials said in a prepared statement.

Haverty also promoted the railroad's transcontinental intermodal corridor between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and Atlanta via Meridan, Miss. Called the Meridian Speedway, it is considered one of the fastest growing intermodal lanes in the United States, Hall of Fame officials said.

Source: Progressive Railroading 
New GIPSA Head Announced 
Former USDA official and industry executive Larry Mitchell has been appointed the new administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) replacing J. Dudley Butler who resigned the post in January.
 
Mitchell is the former associate director of the office of advocacy and outreach at USDA, was previously deputy administrator for farm programs at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and served as deputy vice president at the Commodity Credit Corp. (CCC). 
 
He also headed up his own research firm and was chief executive officer of the American Corn Growers Assn. Before joining USDA he was vice president of government relations at the National Farmers Union (NFU), and was director of federal and state relations for the American Agriculture Movement (AAM). 
CoBank sees big shift to larger, off-farm grain storage 

Off-farm grain storage capacity grew twice as fast as on-farm storage since 2005, according to a CoBank report indicating that the grain handling industry's business model is shifting. The report predicts the Corn Belt region will need 2.3 billion bushels of additional capacity by 2020, of which 1.3 billion is expected to be built off-farm.  "Growth rates are really going to drive this picture and the uncertainty is really high," said Dan Kowalski, lead anaylyst for CoBank's Knowledge Exchange Division. "It makes it difficult to project what storage needs will be by 2020." He said that agricultural yield predictions for corn and soybeans, which have the greatest impact on storage estimates, widely range among forecasters.  

 

According to the report, if actual yields across the grain belt trend five percent above or below the assumed rates, the estimates of additional storage needs would then range from 1.5 to 3.2 billion bushels and construction costs would range from $2.5-$5.1 billion.  "So who's right? It depends on what your position is, and that's why we came up with such a large range," Kowalski said.  Despite yield uncertainty, he said the grain handling industry is shifting to larger facilities serving larger regions. CoBank found that the average size of grain storage facilities has grown by 30 percent since 2005.  

 
To read more, CLICK HERE.
 
Source: Agri-Pulse Newsletter