Southwest Market Region Plans for the Start of $4.4 Billion in Capital and Maintenance Spending During the First Quarter of 2004

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Industrialinfo.com has identified over $4.4 billion in capital and maintenance spending planned by industrial plant owners in the Southwest market region consisting of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana during the first quarter totaling 328 projects. This spending is led by Texas with approximately 130 projects, totaling over $2.5 billion in capital and maintenance spending. Some of the larger projects expected to kick-off during this time period are planned by Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC of Garyville, Louisiana and Hanson Brick of Fort Worth, Texas.

Marathon Ashland is planning to begin construction for a $100 million gasoline desulfurizer unit addition at their refining site located in Garyville (Plant 1018073; PEC 02005006). Hanson Brick is planning the major addition of a second brick plant at their Mineral Wells, Texas plant site (Plant 1034817; PEC 01009591) at the cost of an estimated $35 million. Other major expenditures at plants in the neighboring state of Louisiana could include Entergy Louisiana Incorporated (Jefferson, Louisiana) and their plans to reduce NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions on two gas and oil fired power generation units no. 4 and no. 5 at their generation site located in Westwego, Louisiana (Plant 1004091; PEC 02005205).

Click on the image to the right to view two bar graphs generated from Industrialinfo.com's PECWeb Direct web based tool showing a comparison of first quarter spending by project industry and state.

The Southwest region has historically performed as a big spender in comparison to other regions due to its very diverse population of industry. The spending in this quarter is spread across an even wider spectrum of industries than usual partly due to plans for at least two grassroot fuel ethanol plants in the Texas panhandle. As pending legislation and regulatory agencies threaten to reduce the use of MTBE as a fuel oxygenate, ethanol stands to become a significant industry in Texas and other southern states. When comparing first quarter spending by project count, the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) leads with just over 80 projects, followed by Power and Petroleum Refining (HPI) with 63 and 60 projects respectively.

Industrialinfo.com provides online access to over 4,200 industrial plants that make up the Southwest market region as well as thousands of other plants in regions across the United States via a tool called the Online Plant Directory. Every month Industrialinfo.com dynamically provides critical updates for these plants including management contact changes, employee counts, ownership changes and the addition of new plants that have recently started up. To learn how your company can benefit from this tool Click on the hyperlink above.