Southwest Leads U.S. in Fourth-Quarter Project Completions

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. has more than 2,000 industrial projects valued at $71.2 billion that have been completed or are planned for completion from October through December of this year. The Southwest market region, which contains the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma, leads the nation for both the number and value of project completions, with approximately 480 projects with a combined total investment value (TIV) of $16.69 billion set to be wrapped in the fourth quarter. In terms of project value, the Great Lakes region of the country follows in a close second position, with $15.34 billion in planned completions.

Click on image at right for a graph showing the breakdown by market region of planned 4Q12 project completions.

One of the largest projects scheduled to be completed in the Southwest region by the end of the year is the 600-megawatt (MW) John W. Turk Jr. coal-fired power stations in Fulton, Arkansas. The plant is one of a handful of coal-fired plants under construction in the U.S. as increasingly stringent environmental legislation looms on the horizon. The project kicked off in late 2008 and is owned by Southwestern Electric Power Company (Shreveport, Louisiana), a unit of American Electric Power Company (NYSE:AEP).

In Texas, testing and commissioning of Phase 1A of the 400-MW Los Vientos Windfarm in Willacy County is planned to be completed before the end of the year. The project, which has an estimated TIV of approximately $850,000 is owned by Duke Energy North America LLC (Houston, Texas). Phase 1B of the project is expected to kick off next year.

While the Southwest region is home to the largest overall value of planned 4Q12 project completions, many of the larger individual projects are outside of the region. One such high-value project is in North Carolina. Duke Energy's (NYSE:DUK) 800-MW Cliffside coal-fired plant Unit 6 addition, which has an investment value of more than $2 billion, will start up by the end of the year.

Information on these and other projects is available in Industrial Info's North America Project Database.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.