Texas Expects to Keep its Leading Role in 2009 Chemical Project Spending

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Even as markets around the globe show signs of potentially prolonged weakness, the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) plants operating in the state of Texas will once again be home to the largest amount of total spending seen anywhere in North America during 2009. Industrial Info's North American Industrial Database is currently tracking more than $3 billion of CPI project activity planned to begin construction in Texas during 2009. This includes both capital and maintenance projects, some of which have been deferred from this year.

Air Liquide Industrial U.S. LP (Houston, Texas) considered multiple locations along the Texas coast for the addition of another hydrogen unit which was originally to have begun construction by the fall of this year. A decision was recently made to build the new unit at the site of INEOS NOVA LLC (Channahon, Illinois), located in Pasadena, Texas, and construction is expected to get under way for the estimated $220 million plant during the summer of 2009. SNF Incorporated (Riceboro, Georgia) had planned to begin construction by the end of the year for the first phase of a nearly $350 million grassroot water-treatment chemicals plant near Port Lavaca, Texas, and those plans have slipped until early next year as alternate sites are being considered. "These are great examples of projects that have simply slipped a little further out and are influenced very little by current market conditions," commented Trey Hamblet, Vice President for Industrial Info's Chemical Processing Group.

Earlier this year The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) (Midland, Michigan) announced plans to construct an entirely new chlor-alkali unit at its Freeport, Texas, site, and recent confirmations indicate this project is moving along as planned with the potential for construction to begin early next year. There are several large projects such as these planned for next year that don't seem to be affected by the slowing economy, at least not yet.

Despite the slowing economy and the fear of a long-term recession, Texas will likely be less affected by an overall slowdown in the chemical industry as it is home to the largest and most integrated complexes in the United States, serving almost every market in the global economy. This diversity and access to regional and external markets provides Texas CPI producers considerably more options as we enter troubled times.

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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.