North America Plant Closings End at 22 for the Month of October

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). For the month of October, 22 industrial plant closings occurred in North America impacting approximately 920 jobs. October's performance is a good sign that corporations are slowing down cost-cutting efforts while the industrial market improves. Since January 2003, approximately 580 plant closings have occurred which is significantly lower than 2002's activity. In 2002 approximately 860 industrial plant closings occurred. This is approximately 34% higher than current 2003 activity.

Click image right to view October's Closed Plant Report

Industries that lost plants this month include the Food & Beverage industry with 10 plants, 5 Paperboard or Saw Mill locations, and 4 power plants with the rest divided between Chemical Processing, Terminals and Industrial Manufacturing. The U.S. lost 18 of the 22 plants this month or approximately 800 employees, while Canada lost 4 plants, representing 195 employees. The U.S. southeast and great lakes regions are at the top for losses totaling 11 plants.

Today, higher productivity through automation is contributing to more plant closings. This trend can be seen around the world. China, which has been blamed for stealing North America manufacturing jobs, has lost approximately 15% of their industrial plant population due to plant automation and consolidations. The year 2004 will likely bring a lower number of plant closings as the U.S. economy continues to improve.

Industrialinfo.com performs daily market research tracking over 42,000 industrial plant sites in North America. In 2002, industrialinfo.com identified over 800 industrial plant sites that had closed, shuttered or mothballed. To subscribe to industrialinfo.com's monthly closed plant report at a cost of $250 per year, send inquiries to industrialmanufacturing@industrialinfo.com. Information is also available on thousands of historical plant site closings.