Texas Leads the Nation in Industrial Capital Project Spending

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). An analysis of major industrial capital spending, conducted over the past five years by Industrialinfo.com, indicates that Texas leads all states by a large margin. Over 1,300 industrial projects representing $48 billion in capital spending has been identified over the past five years in Texas. The closest competitor to Texas for industrial spending is California with nearly $26 billion in industrial capital spending, followed by Illinois, Alabama, and Pennsylvania. Most of these projects occurred at established plants, which are expanding or modernizing.

Texas leads all states in capital spending for the following industrial market sectors; Power, Petroleum Refining, and Chemicals processing. Power accounts for about 35% of the capital spending in Texas. New, expanding and upgraded natural gas and coal-fired power plant project accounted for almost $17 billion in capital spending in the state. Deregulation of the Texas power industry, environmental mandates, and increasing electricity demand has lead to a record number of new and expanded power plant developments in the state. Examples of power plants completed in this time frame includes Conoco's 400 MW Sabine River Cogen in Orange Texas and American National Power's 1,100 MW merchant power plant in San Antonio, Texas.

Click on the image at right to view a breakdown of capital spending by industry for the state of Texas.

The Texas gulf coast region is home to one of the largest concentrations of petroleum refineries and petrochemical complexes in the world. Chemical processing accounted for over $10 billion or 21% of the capital spending in the state. Petroleum Refining accounted for about $5 billion or 10%.

Texas is also home to the largest plant population in the U.S. with 2,293 major operational industrial plants and employs close to 560,000 employees at those plants. Subscription to IIR's Southwest Region Online Plant Directory, gives you access to addresses, phone numbers, and plant/purchasing management contacts of all of Texas' major industrial plants.

The top five counties for industrial employment in Texas are Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Travis, and Bexar. Harris County employs over 100,000 at industrial plants in the county.

There is currently 121 new grassroot industrial plants in various stages of planning, engineering, or under construction in Texas.