Right now, there are more than 5,000 major industrial projects in the U.S. with planned construction starts in 2007. These projects total more than $257.8 billion in planned capital and maintenance expenditures. This is a significant 45 percent increase from the 4,590 projects totaling $178 billion identified at the beginning of 2006 for construction starts of the same year (See related January 9, 2006 news article – Travis County, Texas Rises to the Top of Industrial Projects List for 2006 and February 13, 2006 news article – Industrial Info’s Top 20 States for Industrial Project Development in 2006.
Industrial Info is continually monitoring the status of these projects and is forecasting that about 40 to 45 percent of these projects will fallout due to cancellations and postponements as the year progresses.
The Southwest region, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, edged out the Great Lakes as the region with the most planned spending for 2007 with $48.8 billion from 875 projects. The Great Lakes is a close second with 936 projects totaling about $46.6 billion. Energy projects, such as coal-fired gasification and power plant projects make up the majority of the larger projects in the Southwest region. There are also some large-scale natural gas pipeline, petroleum refining, and LNG terminal projects being evaluated. Coal-fired, petroleum refining, and metals & minerals projects will dominate project spending in the Great Lakes region in 2007.
2007 Industrial Planned Project Spending Facts
- 32 – The number of projects with a total investment value (TIV) of $1 billion or greater
- 631 – The number of projects with a TIV of $100 million or greater
- Largest project planned - $6 billion ARC rail expansion proposed by the New Jersey Transit Corporation connecting Manhattan to New Jersey. The project will include a tunnel under the Hudson River.
- Smallest project planned - $500,000 soybean railcar unloading system addition at a soybean processing plant in New York
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