By Patrick Thomas
JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, is preparing to close a beef-processing plant in Pennsylvania, the latest facility to close as a cattle shortage in the U.S. squeezes meatpacking companies.
The single-shift Souderton, Pa., plant employs about 1,700 people and can slaughter roughly 2,000 cattle a day. The facility, located just outside of Philadelphia, is one of JBS's smaller slaughter facilities. JBS is the largest beef processor in the U.S. by volume.
Meatpacking companies including JBS, Tyson Foods and Cargill are under tremendous financial pressure with the U.S. cattle herd at its lowest level since 1951. Meatpackers are losing around $300 per head of cattle that runs through their plant, according to analyst estimates, as livestock prices continue to rise. The cattle shortage has resulted in record-high beef prices for American consumers.
Tyson Foods in January closed one of its largest beef processing plants in Lexington, Neb., that could kill about 5,000 cattle a day. It also cut processing capacity at a larger Texas plant in half.
For the first three months of this year, JBS posted a $279 million adjusted operating loss for its North American beef operations, compared with a $158 million loss the prior year.
About half of the cattle slaughtered at JBS's Pennsylvania plant were trucked long distances, including from Iowa and Canada. The other half of cattle moving through the plant were culled dairy cows and livestock from the southeastern U.S. and upstate New York. The cattle will be shifted to other JBS facilities.
JBS is also planning to close a smaller meat packaging plant in Memphis, Tenn., that employs about 200 people. Despite the closures, JBS is still planning a $150 million investment in its much larger Cactus, Texas, beef plant.
Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-12-26 1152ET
