NASDAQ bell rings at Albert City ethanol plant
1:15 PM
By Dave Dreeszen Journal business editor | Posted: Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The closing bell of the NASDAQ market rings in grand opening festivities this afternoon for US BioEnergy Corp.'s new 100-million-gallon ethanol plant in Albert City, Iowa.
US BioEnergy, whose stock (USBE) trades on the NASDAQ, arranged to have a rare remote bell closing in a warehouse normally used to store distiller's grain, a byproduct of corn-based ethanol.
"We've converted a metal grain storage building into the trading floor,'' US BioEnergy CEO and chairman Gordon Ommen said in an interview with the Journal prior to the Albert City ceremony which will be televised nationally on cable channel CNBC. A live Webcast of the closing bell also is available at:{M7http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/marketsite_about.stm
When Ommen rings the bell at the plant, the bell on the exchange's trading floor in New York City will ring simulateously.
"We're kind or rural by nature. That's our roots,'' the CEO said. "Instead of going to New York, like some others have done and wearing fancy suits and closing the exchange in kind of a private party, we thought we'd bring New York to Iowa and close the exchange here with all our friends and neighbors around the Albert City plant.''
The closing bell marked US BioEnergy's recent initial public offering and highlighted an afternoon of public ceremonies for the $125 million plant which began production last November. Gov. Chet Culver is among the dignataries scheduled to speak. The company will lead public tours of the plant, which created about 40 jobs, until 5:30 p.m.
Ommen said an ample and consistent supply of corn in the Albert City region was a driving force in US BioEnergy's decision to build in the northern Buena Vista County town of about 700.
"The abundance of corn and the ability to partner with a local farmer-owned entity was important to us and really part of our strategy,'' he said.
Albert City Co-Op Elevator invested in the US BioEnergy venture and provides corn for the plant located just across the street from the co-op's large grain handling facilities.
Ommen said the plant, US BioEnergy's first in Iowa, is currently producing ethanol at a rate above its plated capacity. "It's running like a watch. It's doing real well,'' he said.
Besides ethanol, the plant can annually produce 320,000 tons of distillers grain, a high-protein livestock feed.
With the opening of the Albert City plant and another plant in Central City, Neb., US BioEnergy became the nation's second largest-producer of ethanol, behind only Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland, and the largest "pure-play'' producer of ethanol.
US BioEnergy passed VeraSun Energy Corp. for that distinction. VeraSun, which operates ethanol plants in Ashton and Emmetsburg, Iowa, and US BioEnergy are both based in Brookings, S.D.
Shares of US BioEnergy were trading mid-day at $13.14 on the NASDAQ market.
US BioEnergy, whose stock (USBE) trades on the NASDAQ, arranged to have a rare remote bell closing in a warehouse normally used to store distiller's grain, a byproduct of corn-based ethanol.
"We've converted a metal grain storage building into the trading floor,'' US BioEnergy CEO and chairman Gordon Ommen said in an interview with the Journal prior to the Albert City ceremony which will be televised nationally on cable channel CNBC. A live Webcast of the closing bell also is available at:{M7http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/marketsite_about.stm
When Ommen rings the bell at the plant, the bell on the exchange's trading floor in New York City will ring simulateously.
"We're kind or rural by nature. That's our roots,'' the CEO said. "Instead of going to New York, like some others have done and wearing fancy suits and closing the exchange in kind of a private party, we thought we'd bring New York to Iowa and close the exchange here with all our friends and neighbors around the Albert City plant.''
The closing bell marked US BioEnergy's recent initial public offering and highlighted an afternoon of public ceremonies for the $125 million plant which began production last November. Gov. Chet Culver is among the dignataries scheduled to speak. The company will lead public tours of the plant, which created about 40 jobs, until 5:30 p.m.
Ommen said an ample and consistent supply of corn in the Albert City region was a driving force in US BioEnergy's decision to build in the northern Buena Vista County town of about 700.
"The abundance of corn and the ability to partner with a local farmer-owned entity was important to us and really part of our strategy,'' he said.
Albert City Co-Op Elevator invested in the US BioEnergy venture and provides corn for the plant located just across the street from the co-op's large grain handling facilities.
Ommen said the plant, US BioEnergy's first in Iowa, is currently producing ethanol at a rate above its plated capacity. "It's running like a watch. It's doing real well,'' he said.
Besides ethanol, the plant can annually produce 320,000 tons of distillers grain, a high-protein livestock feed.
With the opening of the Albert City plant and another plant in Central City, Neb., US BioEnergy became the nation's second largest-producer of ethanol, behind only Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland, and the largest "pure-play'' producer of ethanol.
US BioEnergy passed VeraSun Energy Corp. for that distinction. VeraSun, which operates ethanol plants in Ashton and Emmetsburg, Iowa, and US BioEnergy are both based in Brookings, S.D.
Shares of US BioEnergy were trading mid-day at $13.14 on the NASDAQ market.
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