Ergon Biofuels closing ethanol plant later this year

In Mississippi, Ergon BioFuels LLC, a subsidiary of Ergon, Inc., is closing its ethanol plant at the Port of Vicksburg in December, according to a press release sent to The Vicksburg Post.

The plant was built in 2007 as a joint venture between Ergon Ethanol Inc. and Bunge North America Inc. and was originally designed to produce 54 million gallons of fuel ethanol per year.

Kris Patrick, Ergon chief operating officer, said in the press release, “Ergon management has made significant investments at Ergon BioFuels over the years and had planned additional improvements to increase ethanol and corn oil yields going forward. Unfortunately, continued erosion in margins, coupled with underperforming production equipment and the economic challenges of being a destination plant, forced us to make this very difficult decision.

It is not clear how many employees would be affected by the plant’s closure, although Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce executive director Pablo Diaz told the Vicksburg Post that “We have several companies that are hiring in the region right now and we plan to make them all aware of the talent that will be available due to this layoff. Although no official number has been given by the company, we estimate that around 30 jobs would be affected.”