Two projects on either end of the U.S. serve as representative of their subsector and the geographics that welcome them.
      In the Cleveland County town of Kings Mountain, N.C., plastic soft-drink container manufacturer Southeastern Container announced in October 2004 a $26-million investment in a plant that would employ up to 100 and lease up to 300,000 sq. ft. (27,870 sq. m.). The 800-employee company, owned by a group of Coca-Cola bottlers, is based in Enka, N.C., near Asheville, where it maintains one of its nine U.S. plants. The others are in Orlando, Fla.; Effingham, Ill.; Hudson, N.H.; Wappinger, N.Y.; Bowling Green, Ohio; Cleveland, Tenn.; and Winchester, Va.
      The new facility will be developed at the 120-acre (49-hectare) Kings Mountain Corporate Center, in a spec building that first broke ground in 2001.According to the North Carolina Dept. of Commerce, between December 9, 2004, and May 4, 2005, nine companies in the chemical/plastics/rubber industries announced plans to expand or locate in the state. Among the collective $93 million in investment and 630 jobs they represent are a $50-million, 60-job project from DSM-Dyseema in Pitt County, and a $23.5-million, 60-job project from Spuntech in Roxboro.
      Across the country, the Inland Empire market for projects is hot nearly to the melting point. But that didn't keep Sigma Stretch Film Corp. from announcing in 2004 an 80-job, 76,000-sq.-ft. (7,060-sq.-m.) project to make shipping plastic wrap, consolidating operations from nearby Compton and Rancho Cucamonga.
      The new facility's capacity of 70 million pounds will bring the company's total North American capacity to 300 million pounds at five stretch film plants: four in the U.S. and one in Ontario. Lyndhurst, N.J.-based Sigma Plastics Group's total U.S. employment is 4,200 at 23 locations.
      Several plastics companies have been drawn to Riverside in the past year, lured in part by the low electric power prices offered by the city-owned utility company.