Several injured in blast at Archer-Daniels-Midland plant in Illinois

By Karl Plume

CHICAGO (Reuters) -Several employees were hospitalized after an explosion and fire late on Sunday at an Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) crop processing facility in Decatur, Illinois, the company and local fire department said.

Eight ADM personnel were injured at the ADM East processing plant and six were taken to hospital via ambulance, with the extent of their injuries unknown, the Decatur Fire Department said in an emailed statement on Monday.

Several structures were severely damaged, including a 10-story building and adjacent buildings, the fire department said.

The explosion occurred near a corn processing plant, according to a source familiar with the facility.

ADM did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the damage or how it would impact its operations. The company said it was still investigating the cause of the incident.

A prolonged outage at the massive processing facility in the heart of the U.S. Corn Belt would put downward pressure on crop prices just as Midwest farmers are preparing to harvest their corn and soybeans. U.S. crop prices, especially for corn, have been under pressure as export demand has slumped.

The Decatur site, ADM’s North American headquarters and its largest facility globally, houses soybean crushing facilities and one of the largest corn wet mills in the world.

It also has the capacity to produce 375 million gallons of ethanol biofuel annually, making it the largest in the country, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.

“Coming into harvest, if it is down for a week or more, that would really cripple the cash basis,” said Mike Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics.

Spot basis bids for corn at ADM’s Decatur location tumbled by 35 cents a bushel from late bids on Friday. Bids have been dropping across the Midwest in recent weeks as buyers await newly harvested grain.