Upbeat Outlook for Upcoming North American CPI Plants in 2008

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--During the past five years the number of grassroot chemical plants starting up in North America peaked in 2005. In that year, the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) saw 40 plants begin commercial operation. Since that time, activity has decreased significantly with 34 openings in 2006 and 23 openings in 2007. Plant start-ups for this year are looking positive for the industry with 61 plants that could begin operation this year.

With the end of the first quarter behind us, the CPI has already watched six plants begin operation. Of those plants, four are in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Although the Great Lakes is home to the majority of the first quarter's newly operational plants, the region is expected to come in second behind the Southwest for the entire year. Coming in third, surprisingly, is the West Coast region. In previous years, the West Coast's grassroot activity has generally been very low. Although the West Coast had no new plants open their doors last year, the CPI estimates seven new operations potentially opening in 2008. Together those seven plants have a total investment value (TIV) of $311 million, which breaks down to approximately $44 million per project.

Although Ohio only has five of the plants with predicted start-up dates in 2008, those plants are significant with a total TIV of $131 million, creating approximately 620 jobs combined. The largest of these plants in terms of TIV and employees is a warehouse and distribution center planned by Proctor and Gamble (NYSE:PG) (Cincinnati, Ohio) that is to be located in Lima on the same site as one of its soap and detergent plants. With an estimated 300 employees and a TIV of $100 million, the fully automated warehouse is expected to be complete this summer.

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