Madison County Takes the Lead in Illinois' $11.6 Billion Industrial Projects for 2008

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In Illinois, there are 247 industrial projects totaling $11.6 billion that have either already started construction or are scheduled to start construction before the end of 2008. One surprising industrial project spending trend coming out of Illinois this year is the geographic distribution of the projects. Traditionally, the majority of the industrial project spending activity in Illinois resides in Cook County and surrounding counties. This year, Cook County with 44 projects totaling $1.1 billion will be second to Madison County, which has 28 projects totaling $2.4 billion. Madison County benefits from its location next to Mississippi River shipping infrastructure and across the river from Saint Louis, Missouri.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of projects spending in Illinois by industry.

Gateway Energy and Coke Company LLC, a subsidiary of SunCoke Energy (Knoxville, Tennessee), one of the fastest growing firms serving the U.S. steel industry has recently started construction on a metallurgical coke manufacturing plant next to U.S. Steel Corporation's (NYSE:X) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Granite City Steel Mill in Madison County. Foundations are being poured for the $570 million project, which will produce 650,000 tons per year of metallurgical coke when it becomes operational at the end of 2009. Guarantee Electric Company (Saint Louis, Missouri) was awarded the electrical portion of the project, and the Murphy Company (Saint Louis, Missouri) was awarded the mechanical contract. An associated 80-megawatt cogen, owned by U.S. Steel, is also being constructed at the site.

The Alternative Fuels Industry has experienced explosive growth for the development of ethanol and biodiesel projects in Illinois. There are 27 Alternative Fuels projects worth about $4.6 billion scheduled to begin construction in 2008 in the state.

Rockies Express Pipeline LLC (Houston, Texas), a joint venture between Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE:KMP) (Houston), Sempra Pipelines & Storage and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) (Houston), has started construction of a 1,679-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Rio Blanco County, Colorado, to Monroe County, Ohio. About 200 miles of the 42-inch-diameter pipeline will cross Illinois. Gulf Interstate Engineering Company (Houston, Texas) is providing engineering services for the project, which is scheduled for completion by summer 2009.

All in all, Illinois is set to be one of the leading states for industrial project spending in 2008. For more information on project spending in Illinois, see related February 5, 2008, article - Illinois' Industrial Project Spending Remains Bright Despite FutureGen Setback.

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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.