Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Imperial Oil on Thursday announced approval for an investment of $720 million to build Canada’s largest renewable diesel facility at its Strathcona refinery near Edmonton. The Calgary-based company said the facility will produce 20,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel and is expected to start production in 2025. Imperial expects regulatory approval for […] Read more
Imperial Oil clears Edmonton renewable diesel plant for construction
Quick decision motivated in part by need for feedstocks such as canola oil, company says
Germany considering withdrawal from crop-based biofuels by 2030
Lawmakers seek to boost biofuel made from wastes
Reading Time: 2 minutes Hamburg | Reuters — Germany’s government is considering proposals to phase out the use of biofuels produced from food or animal feed crops by 2030, the German biofuels industry association (VDB) said on Tuesday, adding the measure could increase carbon emissions. German environment minister Steffi Lemke said Jan. 17 she will soon send proposals to […] Read more
Ritchie Bros. raises cash payout in bid for IAA
Activist investor Starboard Value buys into Ritchie
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Canada’s Ritchie Bros. on Monday sweetened the cash component of its buyout offer for IAA Inc. by 28 per cent, valuing the U.S. auto retailer at US$5.94 billion, and also secured the backing of a key IAA shareholder which had questioned the initial offer. The latest cash-and-stock offer at $44.40 per share, will […] Read more
China driving crude oil price increases
Bulls on crude oil expect a 'very shallow' recession
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — China has largely been behind the current upticks in global crude oil prices, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for Oil Price Information Services in Lakewood, NJ. He suggested that China’s economy will begin to pick up steam in 2023 after the government loosened its super-tight COVID-19 restrictions. “You can […] Read more
CNH workers at two U.S. plants reject proposed contract
Plants' workers on strike since May
Reading Time: 2 minutes Racine | Reuters — Members of two local unions that have been on strike since May at CNH Industrial factories in Wisconsin and Iowa on Saturday voted down a tentative labour contract, the United Auto Workers union said. The union did not disclose how many workers at the two plants rejected the four-year deal, which […] Read more
American Farm Bureau, Deere sign ‘right to repair’ memo
MOU to seek private-sector solutions
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — The American Farm Bureau Federation and machinery manufacturer Deere and Co. signed a memorandum of understanding on Sunday that ensures farmers have the right to repair their own farm equipment or go to an independent technician. As the agriculture sector accelerates its adoption of technology, the reliance on high-tech machinery such […] Read more
Good, clean fun. The man behind #andyclean
What happens when an inside joke turns into a real business?
Reading Time: 11 minutes Business in 2023 is different. Sure, there are still the traditional paths. Some farmers still work hard to identify a market and then chart a methodical approach to launch a business into it. Others take up the mantle from their parents, as young farmers always have, finding ways as they do to add their own […] Read more
The right side
What does it take to be seen to be working toward a healthier world? The globe’s machinery makers have an answer
Reading Time: 5 minutes Agriculture is becoming the target of fringe activist groups. No, let me re-state that. Agriculture is already the target of these groups. The reasons are many and varied but they’re almost always linked to the same basic problem — knee-jerk responses to complex issues — like the feeling that Canada’s high-tech, high-science agriculture has got […] Read more
China must raise self-reliance in ag tech, Xi says
Seed industry seen as weak link in food chain
Reading Time: < 1 minute Beijing | Reuters — President Xi Jinping wants China to accelerate efforts to achieve self-reliance in agricultural technology, identifying seed development and core equipment among areas to focus on, state media reported. The central leadership had said in 2020 that the country’s seed industry was a weak link in the food chain and needed to […] Read more
Railways over revenue cap in drought year, CTA finds
CN, CP now owe $5.7 million in overages, penalties
Reading Time: 2 minutes Despite a dramatically lower Prairie grain handle in the last crop year, the Western Grains Research Foundation can expect a $5.7 million gift card from Canada’s big two railways by the end of next month. The Canadian Transportation Agency, which sets the maximum revenue entitlements (MREs) each crop year for Prairie grain handled by Canadian […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
