North American Industrial Project Spending Index Ends 2007 on High Note

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--According to Industrial Info's North American Industrial Project Spending Index, industrial project spending spiked up to 31.24% growth in December 2007 after four consecutive months of declining growth, which saw the index decline from 40.45% in July down to 22.4% in November.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing North American Industrial Project Spending growth measured month to month over the last two years.

The North American Project Spending Index is a monthly indicator, comparing the total investment value of the current year to the previous year based on actual project construction starts, in order to get a measure of growth or contraction in the industrial market. The index takes into consideration project spending activity in 12 vertical industries: Power; Terminals; Oil & Gas Transmission; Oil & Gas Production; Alternative Fuels; Petroleum Refining; Chemical Processing; Metals & Minerals; Pulp, Paper, & Wood; Food & Beverage; Industrial Manufacturing; and Pharmaceutical & Biotech.

The December uptick marks the end of a year of tremendous industrial project construction activity in North America, which has experienced double-digit growth for the past two years. North American industrial project spending activity for 2007 is measured at $217 billion based on projects that began construction in 2007. That figure is down from the proposed $314 billion in projects that were initially planned to begin construction in 2007, resulting in project fallout of about 30% for the year. Leading industries in 2007 were Alternative Fuels with 337.34% growth, Oil & Gas Transmission with 205.52% growth, Petroleum Refining with 168.77% growth and Power with 39.33% growth.

In the Great Lakes and Midwest regions the Alternative Fuels Industry had $19 billion in projects begin construction. Oil & Gas Transmission pipeline and compressor station projects accounted for more than $1 billion in each of the following regions; Western Canada, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, Midwest and Great Lakes.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading marketing information services company for the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy-related markets throughout the world. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, IIR provides accurate and timely intelligence featuring plant and project information databases, focused market databases, industry forecasting, key industry contacts, industry and territorial map products, direct marketing services and applications, and daily industry news.