In this expanded web edition, two CEOs tell us why their companies are growing in Fargo and Grand Forks. A new report says more biotech companies are looking to emerging markets.
Diligent site development preparations bear fruitful project investment results throughout Mississippi.
Just ask Amazon Web Services Director of Economic Development Roger Wehner.
Read up on Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment at the site in Wisconsin once prepared for Foxconn; Daikin Applied’s HVAC and computer room air handler (CRAH) manufacturing facility in Mexico; and Amazon’s 2,000-job fulfillment center in England’s East Midlands region.
This photo taken on March 27 shows the scale of the BlueOval SK site in Glendale, Kentucky.
Photo courtesy of BlueOval SK
Last week, Trace Creek Construction in partnership with Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) announced the completion of the newest KCTCS location. The 43,850-sq.-t. building in Glendale, Kentucky, will serve as a training and educational center for the Blue Oval SK battery plant, which is expected to create as many as 5,000 jobs. And yes, the building includes four dual EV charging stations that can accommodate up to eight vehicles. “Not only did we finish construction ahead of schedule, but we were under budget as well,” said David Milam, who oversaw construction for Trace Creek, noting that more than $200,000 was returned to the project owner. “We know from experience that KCTCS will use those dollars to help young Kentuckians across the Commonwealth.”
The commonwealth is home to global brands and a growing number of third-party logistics providers. One of them is Conner Logistics, which ended up moving its HQ from California to the Pulaski County city of Somerset. CEO Sean Conner tells us why.
Stats tell the story in terms of announced capital investment, jobs and projects by companies across the commonwealth; top exports and export partners; and strong FDI from around the world.
The A&A report said global air cargo freight rates decreased by as much as 41% in Q2 of 2023 versus the prior year but that capacity and revenues started to recover in late 2023 after 17 months of consecutive decline.
Photo by bfk92: Getty Images
Armstrong & Associates, Inc. (A&A) in February released its “Global and Regional Logistics Costs and Third-Party Logistics Market Trends” report that found rates plummeted in 2023 as “shippers focused on right-sizing inventories and reducing logistics costs.” The 2023 global 3PL market decreased to $1.2 trillion, “an 18.5% decrease compared to 2022, but still a 25.3% increase over pre-pandemic 2019,” said a release announcing the availability of the $995 report. “On the plus side, we are expecting COVID-19 recovery will bring much of the developing world into a higher growth mode in 2024 and 2025 but somewhat muted to that of the developed economies in 2021-2022. With COVID, 3PL customers realized that supply chains need to be more flexible, and being able to source products and components from multiple countries versus just one, is beneficial. This has driven more nearshoring to Mexico, Malaysia with semiconductors, for example, and Vietnam. China will continue to be an important market and still has many integrated supply chains that are hard to decouple.”
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Site Selection Editor in Chief Adam Bruns made this photo Saturday near Flowers Field at Dix Park in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Being created on 308 acres that was a plantation for 150 years and home to the state’s first mental health facility, Dorothea Dix Hospital, for 160 years, the park is owned and operated by the City of Raleigh in public-private partnership with the Dix Park Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and is a member of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Over the weekend, picnics, dogs, games of cornhole, food trucks and dozens of occupied hammocks hung from designated posts in a cluster of trees could be observed in the park, where multiple projects are underway involving both the natural landscape, art works and historic structures, including the construction of Gipson Play Park, stone house restoration and a chapel renovation.
The City of Raleigh The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services administrative headquarters are currently on park grounds. The park is adjacent to the busy North Carolina State Farmer’s Market and to the North Carolina State University Centennial Campus East. “This community has an extraordinary opportunity,” the park website states. “The chance to create a new public space of this size in the heart of a city is remarkable — and simply unparalleled in the United States.”
