Great Lakes Region Leads U.S. in Plants With 1,000+ Employees

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--While a great deal of time has been spent in the past year focusing on plant closures, the United States still has many large plants and facilities in operation. Currently, Industrial Info's North American Industrial Database contains almost 1,100 plants in the U.S. with 1,000 or more employees. Perhaps not surprisingly, the manufacturing hub of the Great Lakes region, with 263 such plants in operation, contains the most of any U.S. market region, followed by the Southwest market region, with 149 plants, and the Southeast region with 146 plants. By state, Texas leads the U.S., with 94 plants with more than 1,000 employees, followed by California with 70, and Michigan with 58 such plants.

Click on image at right for a breakdown by region of plants with 1,000 or more employees.

By industry, nearly half of these plants are involved in the Industrial Manufacturing Industry, which has 534 such plants throughout the U.S., followed by the Food & Beverage Industry with 215, and the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry with 141 plants. All of the nine facilities tracked by Industrial Info that employ more than 10,000 people fall within the Industrial Manufacturing Industry, with the aerospace and computer/semiconductor sectors accounting for three plants each.

Industrial Info is tracking 13 plants currently under construction that will employ 1,000 or more people once operational, although only a handful of these are scheduled to come online this year, with most scheduled to begin operations in 2011. Caterpillar Incorporated (NYSE:CAT) (Peoria, Illinois) is currently constructing an estimated $100 million grassroot machinery manufacturing plant in Seguin, Texas, which will provide approximately 1,400 to 1,500 jobs once complete. Some production is expected to begin in 2010, with the majority of work starting in 2011.

Union Pacific Corporation's (NYSE:UNP) (Omaha, Nebraska) intermodal terminal in Joliet, Illinois, is scheduled for completion this summer. The estimated $370 million project is being constructed on a 785-acre site and will have the ability to handle 500,000 ocean-going containers per year. Ragner Benson Incorporated (Park Ridge, Illinois) is acting as general contractor on the project, which when complete, will employ approximately 1,600 people. Information on these various plants and projects can be found in Industrial Info's North American Industrial Database.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy related markets. For more than 26 years, Industrial Info has provided plant and project spending opportunity databases, market forecasts, high resolution maps, and daily industry news.