ix billion dollars here, seven billion there. Before you know it, you’re talking real money, goes the saying, or a version of it. And lots of real money is flowing in Site Selection‘s Top Industries for new and expanding facilities. What’s more, the busiest industries are spending more on new facilities, on average, at least in three of the top five sectors.
The average investment of the top 10 projects in the number one industry, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, was US$1.9 billion in 2007, up substantially from $973 million in 2006.
Similarly, transportation equipment – a perennial top industry in this analysis – saw an average investment of $1.3 billion in that sector’s top 10 projects, up from $695 million the previous year.
The figure for computers and electronics jumped from $2.4 billion in 2006 to $3.5 billion in 2007.
It takes a $7-billion project on the high end – Videocon Industries‘ LCD television plant in Poland, to be specific – to produce an average of $3.5 billion in investment for 10 projects. Or an abundance of expensive LCD technology plants, as Japan, China and Taiwan all saw $2 billion or more of investment in that project type.
The chemicals sector grand prize goes to Reliance Industries‘ $6-billion refinery in Jamnagar, India, in the state of Gujarat. That facility will join an already-existing, $6-billion refinery built in 1999; combined, the complex will refine 1.2 million bbl/day of crude oil. The U.S. claims six of the top 10 chemical facilities – all 10 of which easily broke the $1-billion mark.
But all this new chemical-production capacity doesn’t necessarily bode ill for the environment. Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical Corp. is investing $1.6 billion in an industrial gasification facility in Beaumont, Texas, that is designed to capture and sequester the vast majority of carbon dioxide it produces.
“Eastman industrial gasification is blazing a new trail for the entire chemical industry, shifting the paradigm to manage our resources more responsibly at the same time we are improving profitability,” noted CEO Brian Ferguson when the project was announced in July 2007. The project will generate up to 1,500 construction jobs and more than 250 permanent jobs, accounting for more than $680 million in direct and indirect employee compensation over a 10-year period.
Site Selection Online – The magazine of Corporate Real Estate Strategy and Area Economic Development.
©2008 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and not warranted to be accurate or current.