Project Bulletin: October 24, 2023

The Upper Sandusky facility will have an annual production capacity of 1.5 million metric tons of soybean oil.

Photo courtesy of Louis Dreyfus Company

Last week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and other state officials announced that Louis Dreyfus Company would be investing $500 million in a new soybean processing facility in Wyandot County. The new plant will be located an hour north of Columbus, Ohio, in a community selected due to the region’s history in agriculture and its qualified workforce offerings. Operations will cover soybean processing, edible oil refining, lecithin production and packaging and will create 100 new jobs in the region. The project reflects the company’s commitment to building up the North American distribution market, adding to facilities it operates in Indiana and New York. The investment also reflects the state’s growing agriculture sector and will support the over 26,000 soybean farmers in the state, whose business currently has a $5.3 billion economic impact in Ohio. Construction on the project is expected to begin in 2024.

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Adani Ports is pursuing India’s first deep-sea transshipment terminal at Vizhimjam Port.

Photo courtesy of Adani Ports

India is making intentional moves to expand its international maritime trade offerings. In mid-October India’s Adani Ports company introduced a new terminal at the Vizhinjam transshipment container port, the first of its kind for the country. The new deep-sea port will allow India to have the capacity to support large cargo ships that previously had to skip over India due to shallow harbors’ inability to support these vessels. Positioned on a natural channel that stretches 24 meters (nearly 80 ft.) below the surface, the new terminal will position the Vizhinjam port as a hub for international trade. By 2030, Adani Ports plans to invest $2.4 billion at the terminal to expand capacity, having invested $930.5 million in this initial phase. This asset is one the country hopes will remove roadblocks that have been faced by India for years and boost integration within the global supply chain.

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EssilorLuxottica plans for its Rayong location to serve as a prominent production center for the Asia-Pacific region.

Photo courtesy of EssilorLuxottica

If you’re a fan of the Oakley or Ray-Ban brands and you live in Southeast Asia, there’s a good chance that the eyewear was manufactured in Thailand. That chance is about to get better. EssilorLuxottica, the parent company behind the leading brands, currently operates one of its largest production facilities in the world in Thailand’s Chonburi province and inaugurated a new plant there earlier this month with a $421 million investment. Located an hour south of Chonburi in the Rayong province, the new 220,000-sq.-ft. eyewear facility is expected to become fully operational in November. The new location will produce 50,000 units per day, setting the facility up to be one of the largest manufacturing plants across the globe while creating 6,000 new jobs over the next five years. For the company, this investment reflects its efforts to strengthen its worldwide distribution network.

Reports compiled and written by Alexis Elmore