ADM is shutting down its soybean processing facility in Kershaw, South Carolina.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) has announced that it will permanently close its soybean processing facility in Kershaw, South Carolina, later this spring. 

This decision is part of a broader cost-reduction and consolidation strategy revealed earlier this year, according to a confirmation from the company on Monday. Since the announcement in February to cut costs by $500 million to $700 million over the next three to five years, ADM has been implementing various job cuts and scaling back some operations. "After considering numerous alternatives, we have concluded that our Kershaw crush plant no longer meets our operational needs for the future," stated ADM spokesperson Dane Lisser. 
The company remains under pressure following an accounting scandal last year that negatively affected its stock price and is now grappling with rising trade tensions with major markets, particularly China, the top importer of soybeans. The closure of the Kershaw plant will mark the first shutdown of a U.S. soybean processing facility after a prolonged period of expansion in the industry driven by growing demand for vegetable oil from biofuel manufacturers, according to industry experts. However, the biofuel sector has recently reduced production in light of uncertainties surrounding U.S. biofuel policy and the prospect of escalating trade conflicts. 
The Kershaw facility, which has the capacity to process 50,000 bushels of soybeans daily, is the smallest of ADM's more than a dozen soybean processing plants in the United States. ADM has promised to assist affected Kershaw employees in finding new jobs and will offer severance packages for those who choose to leave, though the company has not specified the number of workers impacted. According to the South Carolina Department of Commerce, the Kershaw plant employed between 11 and 50 individuals. *Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago. 
Editing by Bosman