US – North Dakota Mill, United States’ largest flour mill, has announced a planned expansion of its mill at a cost of US$23.5 million.

The Mill which is the only state-owned mill in the united states is expected to add a 6,000-cwt durum unit and a 4,000-cwt spring wheat unit in the current expansion project.

The milling units are expected to be completed by the summer of 2021, increasing the capacity of North Dakota Mill to 60,500 cwts.

Vance Taylor, president and chief executive officer of North Dakota Mill said the new milling units are necessary “to keep up with demand from existing customers.”

Taylor further noted that an existing durum mill will be retooled to process spring wheat and will see its daily milling capacity increase from 3,000 to 4,000 cwts.

There has been an increase in world grain production in the recent past with data from the International Grains Council showing a 40 million tonnes year-on-year increase in grain production.

IGC projects that world grain production will hit a record 2.226 billion tonnes this year, driven by record corn output and bigger harvests of wheat, sorghum, oats and rye.

In response to rising grain production, the North Dakota Mill has been conducting a number of upgrades on its facilities in line with the rising grain demand.

Its most recent expansion was in 2016 when it completed the G mill, the facility’s eighth milling unit, which has a daily capacity of 11,500 cwts and is one of the largest single milling units ever built in the United States.

In August 2019, work was completed on an 18,000-foot train track that can accommodate 110-car shuttle trains.

Taylor said that the new train track will help the mill source wheat from western parts of North Dakota.

Four new grain bins also were added with a total of 1 million bushels of storage capacity.

Earlier this year, North Dakota Mill announced plans to upgrade its scales in its truck unloading facilities to speed up the process at a cost of US$8.3 million.

With the upgrade, waiting times on average will be reduced by 35% per day.

Once the current expansion project is completed, milling capacity at North Dakota Mill will be nearly double that of the nation’s second largest flour mill, Ardent Mills’ 35,260-cwt-per-day plant in Hastings, Minnesota, US.

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