Ontario Sees Familiar (and Unreliable) Faces in Third-Quarter 2016 Project Kickoffs as Construction Dates Pushed Back

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ontario may not be facing the natural disaster currently consuming much of Alberta's wilderness, but uncertainty persists for much of its third-quarter 2016 construction starts. The province's kickoffs for the quarter, according to Industrial Info's Project Database, have a total investment value (TIV) of $2.15 billion, a notch higher than what was predicted at this time last year for third-quarter 2015, and more than 80% of the total can be attributed to just three industries: Metals & Minerals, Power and Chemical Processing. But the prospects for the largest of these--a massive mining project that accounts for almost half of the TIV--are shaky at best.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing Ontario's project kickoffs in third-quarter 2016, by industry.

Case in point: Vale S.A.'s (NYSE:VALE) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)$1 billion Copper Cliff nickel mine in Sudbury is the largest single project set to kick off in Ontario in the third quarter, but is unlikely to do so. Although copper and nickel prices are coming off February's all-time low, the industry isn't ready to jump back into big projects just yet. The Copper Cliff project, which consists largely of replacements and expansions to boost copper capacity, has been consistently pushed back for several years, and the third quarter may just be the latest stop down a long line. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Similarly, the Power Industry's $491 million in kickoffs are dominated by Algonquin Power & Utilities Corporation's (Oakville, Ontario) $230 million windfarm on Amherst Island. Like the Sudbury project, the Amherst Island project has faced consistent delays for many years. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

A better bet might be the same company's $40 million Centreville Solar Farm D in Napanee. The 10-megawatt (MW) facility, which received capital approval earlier this year, will utilize 40,000 CS6X photovoltaic solar panels from Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) (Guelph, Ontario). For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

The Chemical Processing Industry owes almost all of its $172 million TIV for third-quarter kickoffs to NOVA Chemical Corporation's (Calgary, Alberta) $150 million conversion and debottlenecking operations at its petrochemical plant in Corunna. NOVA, which is a subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Company (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), plans to convert the NGL feedstock at a 2.1 billion-pound-per-year ethylene unit to process ethane as well as debottlenecking the back-half of the unit. The project currently is in the preliminary engineering phase. For more information, see Industrial Info'sproject report.

Here are the six remaining highest-value projects set to begin construction in Ontario in the third quarter:

• $120 million: WPD Canada Corporation's White Pines Windfarm in Picton
  For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.
• $50 million: Dare Foods Limited's cookie and cracker plant in Cambridge
  For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.
• $49.6 million: Protocol Biomass Corporation's fuel pellet plant in Prescott
  For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.
• $45 million: Spectra Energy Corporation's Dawn Natural Gas Compressor Station in Dresden
  For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.
• $30 million: Sofina Foods Incorporated's turkey-processing facility in Mitchell
  For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.
• $25 million: Ontario Graphite Limited's graphite mine in Kearney
  For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

More than three-quarters of Ontario's TIV--$1.69 billion--is related to 23 projects that are now in the planning stages, where plenty of factors could increase, decrease or eliminate the expected spending. The region also has 12 projects worth more than $261 million in the engineering stages, while 128 projects worth about $201 million are maintenance-related.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, 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. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.