The Close of the First Quarter Brings in Renewed Confidence for CPI Spending

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). During the first quarter of this year, Industrial Info added 240 capital and maintenance projects for the chemical processing industry (CPI) to its North American Projects Database in the United States and Canada. This equals the largest number of active projects added to the database during the first quarter of the year in over four years. The substantial increase in active projects at the start of the year supports the industry’s continued positive performance of the last two years despite the escalating cost of feedstock and fuel costs.

The addition of these 240 projects brings the total number of active CPI projects being tracked by Industrial Info in the United States and Canada to over 830, with a total investment value (TIV) of $16.1 billion. The 240 projects researched during the first quarter of this year equal a TIV of $3.1 billion of which 163 projects, valued at $1.8 billion, are planned to begin some phase of construction during 2006. The remainder of the 77 projects, totaling $1.3 billion, has construction starts spread across 2007 and 2008.

Of the 830 total CPI projects, there are 702 representing $13.1 billion planned to begin construction in 2006 in the U.S.

Click on the image at right to view the U.S. CPI Project Analysis Chart

Equally as encouraging as the large number of projects identified in the start of the year, is the number of projects that were already approved or under construction when discovered. Of the 240 projects reported during the first quarter, roughly 70 of them were approved or nearing some phase of engineering and construction when reported. These 70 projects also represented a large TIV estimated at $1.3 billion, another strong signal for the CPI.

The first quarter wasn’t only a period of significant discovery for new CPI projects. Industrial Info also updated over 550 previously reported CPI projects, with 356 remaining in an active status. The two largest peaks in construction kick off activity are expected to be in June and September of this year. The spring and summer months are traditionally considered the most advantageous to begin construction activities in order to complete civil construction and structural erections prior to the cold and seasonally wetter weather of the fall and winter.

Two of the largest projects starting construction this year in the CPI consist of plans by Oxyvinyls LP and Bayer Corporation. Each of these companies plan to begin construction of individual projects that equal or exceed $100 million in investment value early this year and both projects are located in Texas.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.