by ADAM BRUNS

he rest of the world is doing just fine, thank you.
        That's the message coming through loud and clear when analyzing the thousands of new projects that located somewhere outside the United States in 2002. And the rest of the world that's achieving the most is made up of countries that have heretofore been running behind in terms of economic development and corporate presence – especially in Eastern Europe and the Far East.
        It comes as no surprise that 10 of the top 50 new and expanded non-U.S. corporate manufacturing facilities by investment were in China, including a $1-billion investment by Taiwan Semiconductor in a Shanghai plant. Nor is it a surprise that second place was a scant three projects apiece for Mexico, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Poland.
        Topping the list by investment was the Toyota/Peugeot joint venture in Kolin, Czech Republic, at US$1.3 billion. PSA Peugeot/Citroen has been on a roll (see World Reports, p. 10, in the January 2003 issue of Site Selection.) The company's latest announcement came in mid-January 2003, when it committed to building a new $746.2-million assembly plant in Trnava, Slovakia, 27 miles (43 km.) outside the country's capital city of Bratislava. The project will employ 3,500, occupy a 470-acre (190-hectare) site, and no doubt rank among the top global projects for 2003. Having sold 3,267,000 vehicles in 2002, the company aims to sell more than 4 million by 2006.
        Six of the Top 20 projects by investment were in the automotive industry, and like PSA Peugeot/Citroen, many of these companies have several irons in the fire. The home country economy might not be so good right now, but Germany's Volkswagen is betting on the productivity to be found in Sao Paulo, Brazil, pledging $700 million toward an expansion. Meanwhile, the company has announced another Latin American expansion: a five-year, $2-billion investment in its Puebla, Mexico plant that will see some 1,500 added to the payroll.
        The 9th-place project, DaimlerChrysler's planned expansion in Windsor, Ont., has been thrown into some doubt by recent comments emanating from the carmaker's head office in Stuttgart. In question is the amount of incentives that provincial and Canadian officials will be willing to shell out to help the project move forward.
        As for South Korean auto manufacturer Hyundai, while their $1-billion Alabama decision reverberated all year long in North America, there was no less jubilation in Irrungattukottai, India, where the company is putting $300 million into a plant expansion. The goal is to make the plant a global hub for small car export by the end of the decade.
        In the chemical realm, the $600-million naphtha cracker being built in Mariveles, Bataan, in the Philippines by Philippine National Oil Co. is the centerpiece of what officials hope will be a full-scale 1,310-acre (530-hectare) plastics park. The facility will furnish the raw materials for use by prospective polypropylene and polyethylene plants in the production of materials for plastic products.
        The Chinese arm of Shell Petrochemicals Co. Ltd., in conjunction with China National Offshore Oil Corp., is pursuing development of the Nanhai Petrochemical Project in Guandong Province. Expected to be on stream by 2005, the complex will include plants for the production of styrene monomer, propylene oxide, polyols, monopropylene glycol and monoethylene glycol.
        The Shell venture is one of two giant project contracts in China in 2002 for Paris-headquartered petrochemical engineering and construction firm Technip-Coflexip. The firm is also helping BASF to build a Syngas plant in Nanjin.
        The pace has not slackened in 2003 for the French company, as it was awarded another contract by BASF to build a polytetrahydrofuran and tetrahydrofuran complex in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park. The substances are used in the manufacture of elastic fibers.
        As for square footage, China had three of the Top 10, including the 800,000-sq.-ft. (74,320-sq.-m.) semiconductor plant being built in Suzhou by Fairchild Semiconductor International. Two of the top five were in Spain: a 775,000-sq.-ft. (71,998-sq.-m.) distribution center for IKEA in Valls, and a 731,000-sq.-ft. (67,910-sq.-m.) plant for Dannon in Aldaya, which will become its principal liquid yogurt factory in Europe.
        Japanese machine tool maker Mori Seiki decided to move its European corporate headquarters, technical center and showroom to Paris from Stuttgart. The new location in Roissy Park International won the decision in part because of its proximity to Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
        Garnering three spots in the top 20 by square footage was the territory of Puerto Rico, with plants for Tyco, Abbott Laboratories and Bumble Bee Sea Foods.
        Geographic distribution was the order of the day for the largest projects by employment. They run the gamut from high- to low-tech, with many focused on services. Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems will employ 1,100 people at its new Spanish headquarters in Barcelona when the project is finished in mid-2003. SAP's investment in Berlin will employ 550 in the design and production of software. Meanwhile, two tuna processing plants – Grupo Calvo's in Puerto Rico and Bumble Bee's in El Salvador – will employ a total of 1,225 people.
        The No. 1 job-creating project, a wiring system factory being built in Bistrita, Romania, by Leoni AG, will employ 3,000 people. Driven by its ties to the automotive industry, the German company operates about 60 sites worldwide. Following on the expansion of wiring systems sites in Tunisia, Egypt and Romania, Leoni is building two new wiring plants in Romania and one in the Ukraine.
        The company's cable division has also tripled its capacity in Mexico, set up a new plant in Poland, and begun construction of two new plants in China – thus serving as a single-division microcosm of world trends in plant sitings and expansions.

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