Metals & Minerals Companies Construct 32 New Plants in the U.S.

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Since the beginning of 2008, 32 new Metals & Minerals Industry plants have become operational in the United States. While not quite keeping pace with the number of plant closures that the U.S. has experienced recently (see related February 9, 2009, news article - U.S. Metals & Minerals Industry Plant Closures on the Rise in 2009), the number of new plants coming online is a good indicator of the health of the industry as it applies to equipment and service providers to the industrial market.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of new Metals & Minerals Industry plants coming online since the beginning of 2008.

The two regions with the most new plant construction are the Great Lakes region and the Rocky Mountain region. The Great Lakes region was the busiest region for new plant construction during this period, as 12 new plants came online with 519 employees. Second on the list is the Rocky Mountain region with six new plants and 672 employees.

Plants coming online since the beginning of 2008 include mines and steel mills. In 2008, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Incorporated (NYSE:FCX) (Phoenix, Arizona) started operations at a new copper mine in Safford, Arizona. Nucor (NYSE:NUE) (Charlotte, North Carolina) expanded and reopened a steel mill in Memphis, Tennessee.

One of the more recent new plant start-ups belongs to Chicago Tube & Iron (Romeoville, Illinois), which built a 120,000-square-foot pipe and tubing fabrication plant in Locust, North Carolina. The $10 million project was designed by SC Hondros & Associates Incorporated (Charlotte, North Carolina). The company relocated operations from Oakboro, North Carolina.

View Plant Profile - 1043651 1027159 1076403

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. For more information send inquiries to metalsandmineralsgroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us at www.industrialinfo.com.