North American Project Spending Index for January Indicates 36% Growth in 2008

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Continuing an upward trend that began in December 2007, planned industrial project spending in North America grew 36.93% in January 2008 when compared with the previous January. Currently there is $327 billion worth of industrial projects scheduled to begin construction in 2008.

Click on the image at right to view the North American Industrial Spending Index Chart.

Most of the growth is happening in the energy sector, including Power, Petroleum Refining, Alternative Fuels and Oil & Gas Production, as well as in the Metals & Minerals and Pharmaceutical industries. The Power Industry alone is planning more than $153 billion in projects to kick off in 2008. This represents 27.51% growth for the industry when compared with January 2007.

Declining industries for January include Industrial Manufacturing with a 27.65% decline and Pulp & Paper with a 39.74% decline.

The North American Project Spending Index is a monthly indicator, comparing the total investment value of the current year to the previous year based on actual project construction starts, in order to get a measure of growth or contraction in the industrial market. The index takes into consideration project spending activity in 12 vertical industries: Power; Terminals; Oil & Gas Transmission; Oil & Gas Production; Alternative Fuels; Petroleum Refining; Chemical Processing; Metals & Minerals; Pulp, Paper, & Wood; Food & Beverage; Industrial Manufacturing; and Pharmaceutical & Biotech.

The North American Industrial Project Index continues its positive trend for the industrial market in 2008. Following 31.24% growth in December 2007, January is the second month in a row of increased project activity, which was preceded by four months of declining growth. In spite of Wall Street jitters, subprime mortgage woes and talk of a recession, planned industrial project activity has increased going into 2008, and construction activity remains robust. This bodes well for equipment and service providers for the North American industrial market in 2008.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process and energy related industries with products and services ranging from industry news, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia advertising campaign assistance.