Chicago - IBP Inc. announced that it was cutting back operating hours this week at all of its fed beef operations because of unfavorable market conditions.
"All of our fed beef operations will run 40 hours or less," said Gary Mickelson, IBP spokesman.
Mickelson would not comment on how much the reduction compared with last week's operating hours but said the plants had been running "obviously more than that".
Operating cutbacks also will vary at each of the company's eleven beef plants, Mickelson said.
On Friday Mickelson said the company had been reviewing its options on plant reductions but said there were no immediate plans.
Monfort Beef and Lamb Co., a unit of ConAgra Inc (CAG - news). last Thursday announced plans to reduce operations this week at its four beef plants.
National Beef and Excel Corp. spokespersons last week said they had no plans to scale back operations this week, but were not available for comment on Monday regarding if they had revised plans following IBP's announcement.
National Beef is co-owned by Farmland Industries and U.S. Premium Beef. Excel Corp. is a unit of Cargill Inc.
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