PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

3 Months Ended

Mar. 28, 2021

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENTProperty, plant and equipment (“PP&E”), net consisted of the following:


	March 28, 2021		December 27, 2020
	(In thousands)
Land	$	246,271	$	255,171
Buildings	1,975,578		1,983,823
Machinery and equipment	3,296,982		3,230,199
Autos and trucks	73,760		73,647
Finance leases	2,182		2,182
Construction-in-progress	233,867		199,161
PP&E, gross	5,828,640		5,744,183
Accumulated depreciation	(3,146,271)		(3,086,692)
PP&E, net	$	2,682,369	$	2,657,491

The Company recognized depreciation expense of $80.7 million and $74.5 million during the three months ended March 28, 2021 and March 29, 2020, respectively.

During the three months ended March 28, 2021, Pilgrim's spent $102.2 million on capital projects and transferred $68.3 million of completed projects from construction-in-progress to depreciable assets. Capital expenditures were primarily incurred during the three months ended March 28, 2021 to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. During the three months ended March 29, 2020, the Company spent $77.2 million on capital projects and transferred $87.2 million of completed projects from construction-in-progress to depreciable assets.

During the three months ended March 28, 2021, the Company sold certain PP&E for $13.1 million in cash and recognized net gain on these sales of $2.4 million. PP&E sold during the three months ended March 28, 2021 consisted of a broiler farm in Mexico, a processing plant within the U.K. and other miscellaneous equipment. During the three months ended March 29, 2020, the Company sold miscellaneous equipment for cash of $0.6 million and recognized a net gain on these sales of $0.5 million.

The Company has closed or idled various facilities in the U.S. and in the U.K. Neither the Board of Directors nor JBS has determined if it would be in the best interest of the Company to divest any of these idled assets. Management is therefore not certain that it can or will divest any of these assets within one year, is not actively marketing these assets and, accordingly, has not classified them as assets held for sale. The Company continues to depreciate these assets. As of March 28, 2021, the carrying amounts of these idled assets totaled $45.0 million based on depreciable value of $234.7 million and accumulated depreciation of $189.7 million.

As of March 28, 2021, the Company assessed if events or changes in circumstances indicated that the asset group-level carrying amounts of its property, plant and equipment held for use might not be recoverable. There were no indicators present that required the Company to test the recoverability of the asset group-level carrying amounts of its property, plant and equipment held for use at that date.