Senior Editor Gary Daughters — helped by a lovely delivery of soccer news from the wing by Ron Starner — explores the latest Georgia economic development news:
The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program based at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland — including MEP Centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico — could be the most valuable but most frequently overlooked tool in any growing manufacturer’s toolbox.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, the SK Hynix display featured an AI fortune teller. No word on whether it predicted the company’s $4 billion bet on Indiana.
Photo courtesy of SK Hynix
The stellar play of the Purdue Boilermakers in the 2024 NCAA National Men’s Basketball Championship tournament is not the only thing lighting up West Lafayette, Indiana. The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that Korea’s SK Hynix is planning to invest $4 billion and create 1,000 jobs at an advanced packaging facility there.
Ron Starner’s recent interviews offered clues something like this could be in the offing. “In Indiana, we are working with the state government to build out America’s Hard Tech Corridor,” Purdue President Dr. Mung Chiang told him last September. “This includes hard tech in semiconductors and microelectronics, digital agriculture and pharmaceutical manufacturing, and aerospace and transportation logistics. These are all technologies that you can touch.”
More recently, see Starner’s Indiana Spotlight from the March 2024 issue that we’ve posted today. In “An Underdog No More,” he talks with NHanced Semiconductors Founder and President Bob Patti, whose company is constructing three advanced packaging plants of their own in Odon and Bloomington, Indiana. Among other things he observes, “We are about to enter a renaissance — a new golden age in the semiconductor industry like what we saw in the 1980s.” Asked by Starner if the state can compete with the likes of Ohio and its $20 billion Intel chip plant, Indiana Economic Development Corporation Senior Vice President for Business Development Brock Herr says, “Yes, I do think we can … Indiana has a very clear ability to land a project like Intel.”
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Atlas Van Lines
Another Indiana company, Evansville-based Atlas Van Lines, this week released the findings of its 57th annual Corporate Relocation Survey, filled out over two weeks in late 2023 by 575 decision-makers with a responsibility for relocation, and employed by a company that has either relocated employees during the past two years or plans to relocate employees this year. A separate link to charts documenting results from the survey’s 59 questions includes in-depth insights into HR relocation practices, but nothing about geography of the relocations in question. Among the findings:
Seventy percent of all companies reported an increase in the overall number of employees relocated in 2023, a two-point increase from 2022.
Sixty-four percent of companies reported an employee declined the opportunity to relocate in 2023. “Safety and family drove declined relocations in 2023, with 35% of companies reporting employees declined relocation due to safety concerns, 34% due to family issues/ties, and 30% due to a lack of spousal/partner assistance,” the report states. “Companies relocating employees internationally were more likely to report that safety concerns resulted in declined relocations at 44%.”
One in three companies reported company growth as a factor in relocation, an increase of five points from 2022 to be the No. 1 company factor impacting relocations. Knowledge and skills transfers were No. 2 at 29%.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Photo courtesy of BP
In October, BP announced that the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced by a new third liquefaction train at the Tangguh LNG facility (pictured), in Papua Barat, Indonesia, had safely been loaded and sailed, to be delivered to Indonesia’s state-owned power generator PT PLN (Persero) at its regasification facility in Arun, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province. In addition to the new train, the Tangguh expansion project included construction of two offshore platforms, 13 new production wells, an LNG loading facility, and supporting infrastructure. At its peak, more than 13,500 workers were involved in the project’s development at the remote site, the company said.
Located in Teluk Bintuni Regency in Papua Barat province, Tangguh LNG has been operation since 2009. The expansion was the third major project start-up for BP globally in 2023, following start of production from the Mad Dog II project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and from the MJ field off the east coast of India. “The safe and successful start-up of Train 3 marks a new phase for Tangguh and is a proud day for BP and our Tangguh partners,” said BP EVP Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath. “I would like to thank the Government of Indonesia for our strong partnership and their continued support that has made this possible. Tangguh is important both to BP and to Indonesia. It is expected to account for more than a third of the country’s gas production and make a significant contribution to meeting the country’s growing needs for reliable and affordable energy.”
