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ith 613 projects, the transportation equipment sector had the most projects of any industrial sector in 2004, according to the Conway Data New Plant Database.
      Three of the top five transportation projects by investment were automobile plants in China, led by DaimlerChrysler with its US$1.25-billion complex in Beijing, in addition to its expansion in Windsor, Ont.
      Meanwhile, two aviation projects involving Vought Aircraft made their way into the Top 10 (see separate articles on p. 154 and p. 218 for more). Look for DaimlerChrysler to get an early jump on the 2006 list too, as it is partnering with officials from the United Arab Emirates in making power plant and production investments in Pakistan that could together amount to nearly $3 billion.
      The chemicals & pharmaceuticals sector included a marked increase in petroleum-related activity, as well as a flurry of LNG projects (see story, p. 124 of this issue). But some other projects are also making headway. The long-simmering Lyondell/Bayer complex is now unfolding in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with an investment of some $716 million.
      That's in keeping with the findings of a late 2003 analysis of post-EU-enlargement implications for the industry from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, which named the Netherlands as one of the best countries for chemical operations.
      The industry is under the magnifying glass as the EU's controversial Registration, Evaluation & Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) program — requiring companies doing business in the EU to do a re-examination and testing of all chemicals they use — is scheduled to be finalized soon.
      In a January 2005 interview with Site Selection, Dutch Secretary of Finance Joop Wijn said more was on the way for the chemicals sector, against a background of national corporate taxation reductions.
      "We are famous for turning water into land," he said. "We are intending on turning a piece of the sea into land near the Port of Rotterdam, and we will make it available for petrochemical sites."

      Transportation companies DaimlerChrysler and Vought were joined by Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream as the only corporations with multiple projects among the Top 10 in each of the top five industries. Dreyer's is investing $180 million in its Laurel, Md., facility and $100 million in Bakersfield, Calif.
      Sweets tied with meats, at four projects apiece, to lead the Top 10 projects by investment in the food processing category, which was topped by the $210-million sweetener plant investment by Suedzucker in Pemuco, Chile. A soy processing plant in Argentina and a McCain Foods potato processing plant in Russia rounded out the Top 10.
      Among the meat processing plants is an investment by Smithfield Packing Co. in an $85-million cooked ham plant in Kinston, N.C. The 206-job, 180,000-sq.-ft. (16,722-sq.-m.) facility in Kinston Industrial Park will only build on the infrastructure Smithfield Foods has already established in the state. Not only does the packing subsidiary operate a 574-worker meat processing plant in Kinston as well as another 5,000-worker packing plant in Tar Heel, but Smithfield's livestock production subsidiary Murphy-Brown is headquartered in nearby Warsaw. That firm employs 2,800 of its 4,800 U.S. employees in North Carolina, and also contracts with more than 1,500 independent farmers in the state.
      "Once again, North Carolina stepped up to be our partner as we were making decisions about important future investments," said Joseph W. Luter, III, chairman and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods. "Company officials visited many other locations during their deliberations in selecting a site for the new facility, and the enthusiasm and support of Kinston and Lenoir County representatives made this choice an easy one."

      Circling back to hook up with the year's top category, five of the top ten projects in the No. 5 plastics & rubber sector were tire plants: Toyo in White, Ga.; Continental in Camacari, Bahia, Brazil; Michelin in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary; Nokian in Vsevolozhsk, Russia; and Goodyear in Cali, Colombia.
      Some synthetic products are helped along by synthetic leases. Berry Plastics' 200,000-sq.-ft. (18,580-sq.-m.) expansion in Evansville, a $52-million project announced in August 2004, is being financed in part by a new program launched by 2003 state legislation and administered by the Indiana Port Commission and the Ports of Indiana.
      As the first company to use the tool, Berry — a maker of injection-molded and thermoformed plastic open-top containers, aerosol overcaps, closures, drink cups and housewares — is being helped along by $11 million in financing. Previous to the legislation, the Ports of Indiana only offered the financing to companies within its Ohio River and Lake Michigan port facilities. The new program allows the Ports of Indiana to provide synthetic leases to companies developing capital projects anywhere in the state.
      "This is a very creative and beneficial product for us," said Jim Kratochvil, executive vice president and CFO of Berry Plastics Corp., at the project announcement. "It provides significant advantages versus other financing alternatives."

      A promising development for many industries is the appearance of the electronics sector at No. 4, marking the first time the once-struggling sector has made the top five since 1997. Led by SanDisk and Toshiba's joint venture in Japan and Intel in Dublin, Ireland, the sector's top projects ranged from memory chips to hard disk drives to cell phones.
      Among those projects was a radio-frequency and microwave design center at the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone in Penang, Malaysia, from Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Mini-Circuits, a maker of thousands of signal processing components. The three-phase, US$131.6-million, 3,000-job investment gets under way in May 2005. While it is the company's first foray into Malaysia, it operates other Asian plants in China, Indonesia, South Korea and India. The company also runs plants in Brooklyn; Branson, Mo.; and other U.S. locations, as wellas one in the U.K. and one in Israel.
      One project in the semiconductor sector is San Jose, Calif.-based Atmel, which has in common with Mini-Circuits an expertise in radio frequency components. The driving force behind Atmel's $184-million expansion at its North Tyneside, U.K., plant (acquired from Siemens in September 2004) is smart cards and microcontrollers. The new production capacity will allow the plant to produce up to 60 million chips per month, as well as serve in a back-up role to plants in Rousset, France, and Colorado Springs, Colo.
      Clive Over, director of press relations for Atmel, says the ramp-up in North Tyneside coincided with the shutdown of the company's plant in Irving, Texas, a process that was all about timing.
      "The challenge Atmel found itself in in 2000 was overcapacity," he says, "and how the business was looking then didn't warrant keeping the Texas facility open at that time." However, the company has put nearly all of its Texas equipment to use in other areas, and is still looking to sell the Irving property.
      While the company is looking to get to a certain critical mass before reinvesting in more fabs, it is also expanding its design work at a center in East Kilbride, Scotland, where it has doubled employment since acquiring the facility in 1999. Scotland's Executive and Scottish Enterprise have made US$2.3 million available to Atmel to support the expansion. Atmel is doing its part in Germany's "Silicon Saxony" region too, announcing in July 2004 the expansion of its Dresden design center's space to accommodate the boosting of its staff from 12 to 44.
      Just missing out on the top five industries for 2004 were the fabricated metal products sector and the resurgent machinery and equipment. Whether the product is fasteners, valves, turbines or ball bearings (all of which were among the sector's top projects for the year), the sector is always a good indicator of how the industrial world at large is turning. And its products supplement the success of the sectors ranked above them: For instance, Textron's new plant in Greenville, Miss., is almost exclusively focused on the transportation equipment market.
      For 2004's Top Industries, all cycles appear to be spinning in a positive direction.

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