020119 Cargill Quarterly Earnings Up 34%January 19, 2002Minneapolis. MN - Agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. said its fiscal second- quarter earnings jumped 34%, helped by improvements in most of its business units, lower energy costs and cost-cutting measures. Minneapolis-based Cargill, the largest privately held company in the United States, said earnings in the period ended Nov. 30 rose to $234 million from $174 million a year earlier. Cargill said units posting improvements included food ingredients, egg, poultry and processing, animal nutrition, grain and cotton trading, and oilseeds processing. The company's cattle-feeding business suffered losses, hurt by a downturn in the economy following the Sept. 11 attacks, when people ate out less, and by a sharp decline in U.S. exports of beef to Japan amid large supplies of market-ready cattle. To offset the trend, the company is shifting to higher-margin branded meat products and has increased exports of pork and poultry to Japan to offset the downturn in beef shipments. Japanese beef imports have fallen amid consumer concern over beef safety following the discovery of mad cow disease in Japan. Results at Cargill's fertilizer and steel manufacturing units were pressured by imbalances between supply and demand, Cargill said. Fertilizer makers have been hurt by a slowing farm economy, while the steel industry has suffered from a flood of less-expensive foreign imports. “We're doing more to help farm customers market their output successfully and to help food customers manage their supply-chain risks,” Cargill Chairman and Chief Executive Warren Staley said in a statement. “That enabled us to post strong earnings in spite of the tragic events of Sept. 11, the deepening financial crisis in Argentina, the sudden bankruptcy of a major energy trader (Enron Corp.) and a weak global economy.”
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com |
