Few states need major projects like Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Two projects announced before those major storms are progressing. The biggest 2005 investment in metals comes from Grupo IMSA, a multinational metal processing company that is investing $200 million to build a 200,000-sq.-ft. (18,580-m.) facility at the Port of Shreveport-Bossier for its Steelscape subsidiary. The project, to be built in four phases on a 78-acre (32-hectare) site, will employ up to 240 and the first phase is projected to be operational by the second quarter of 2006.
   Louisiana also claims the top project in the plastics and rubber products industry category. Shintech Louisiana broke ground in December for its $1 billion PVC/plastics plant in Louisiana's Iberville Parish. The project will employ 2,000 construction workers at its peak and create 150 jobs once the facility is operational.
   After that, all of the top investments in the category are from tire companies, including three projects from Bridgestone and three from Korean companies Kumho and Hankook.
   Meanwhile, Michelin — already investing in a major way in South Carolina (see p. 256) and Poland — is still rolling out further investments in 2006. In late January the company announced that it would close its Kitchener, Ont., B.F. Goodrich facility but invest $92 million and create 75 new jobs at its plant in Waterville, Nova Scotia, where it will make its X One wide single longhaul truck tire. Nova Scotia offered an incentive package worth $10.8 million for the project, which will benefit Michelin's other Nova Scotia plants in Garton and Bridgewater.