Deere to acquire tractor manufacturer in south China

MOLINE, Ill. — Deere & Company plans to expand small tractor manufacturing in China by acquiring Ningbo Benye Tractor & Automobile Manufacture Co. Ltd., located in Ningbo in southern China.

Deere said it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase the Benye business and is seeking final review of the transaction by government approval authorities in China.

Through the acquisition, Deere will expand its product line offered to Chinese farmers and enhance its worldwide capacity to produce low-horsepower tractors.

Benye mainly builds tractors in the 20- to 50-horsepower range, while Deere currently builds tractors in the 60- to 120-horsepower range at its current China joint venture tractor factory, located in Tianjin.

Deere has provided products and services to the Chinese agricultural market since 1976 and has manufactured equipment in China since 1997, when it entered a joint venture to build combines at a factory at Jiamusi. The Jiamusi operation is now wholly-owned and the company also manufactures tractors at a joint venture, John Deere Tiantuo Co., Ltd.

Benye, which was started in 1955, is the largest tractor manufacturer in southern China. It has a new manufacturing facility that covers 200,000 square meters, which includes research and development, manufacturing and marketing. While 95 percent of the company’s current revenues come from sales within China, the company has exported tractors to 70 countries worldwide.

Financial details of the expected acquisition were not made public. Deere intends to create a wholly-owned subsidiary named John Deere Ningbo Agricultural Machinery Co. Ltd. to manage the business. The transaction is expected to close later this year.

Bredesen announces feedstock loan recipients

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gov. Phil Bredesen, Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matthew Kisber and Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens announced the recipients of the Feedstock Processing Demonstra-tion Loan at the first Governor’s Conference on Biofuels in Burns, Tenn.

Tennessee Soy Products, Inc. of McMinnville, Freedom BioFuels, Inc. of Madison and Nu-Oil, LLC of Counce are the Tennessee companies receiving the loan.

The departments of Agriculture and Economic and Community Development were allocated $1 million for the loan program, designed to increase income of Tennessee farmers and improve production of alternative fuel feedstock. Specifically, these facilities will extract soybean oil, which can then be “fed” into the production process for biodiesel fuel.

Tennessee Soy Products loan amount: $500,000. Project: Purchase an existing facility from the Industrial Development Board of McMinnville/Warren County to house the company and its partner Alliance Biofuels. Tennessee Soy Products will process two million bushels of soybeans annually to meet the demands of its partner, which will construct a biodiesel refinery to produce five million gallons annually.

Freedom BioFuels, Inc. loan amount: $250,000. Project: To open a facility adjacent to existing grain elevators in Robertson County, reducing transportation times in the area. The company will be processing 1.8 million bushels of soybeans annually, with a goal of producing 5,000 gallons of oil per day and 128 tons of meal per day.

Nu-Oil, LLC loan amount: $250,000. Project: To purchase additional equipment to increase feedstock production. The company will be processing 1.5 million bushels of soybeans annually, which will produce 1.5 million gallons of biodiesel and more than 38,000 tons of meal.