Top Counties for Industrial Project Spending in 2006 – 2Q06 Update

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). The industrial construction marketplace is dynamic and ever changing. Identifying new opportunities and keeping track of established opportunities is a monumental task that Industrial Info approaches with innovation, technology, and hard work. By continually monitoring the status of capital and maintenance projects, Industrial Info can identify trends as they develop.

At the beginning of the year, Industrial Info identified 4,590 active capital and maintenance industrial projects scheduled to begin construction in 2006. Analysis of the data collected during the first quarter indicates that the number of active projects has increased to about 5,100.

Ranking these projects by geography, in this case by county, helps identify hot spots for project construction starts. This year’s analysis identified Travis County, Texas as being the county with the highest total investment value of projects scheduled to begin construction in 2006. At the end of the first quarter, Travis County retained its first place ranking and remains on pace to see in excess of $5 billion in industrial projects begin construction this year, mainly due to growth in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Click on the image at right to view the Top 20 Counties List

Four counties that were in the top 20 at the beginning of 2006 have fallen out due to projects being cancelled or deferred to future years. These counties are King, Washington; Itasca, Minnesota; San Bernardino, California and Ashtabula, Ohio.

These counties were replaced by Madison, Kentucky; Mobile, Alabama; Mississippi, Arkansas and McLennan, Texas.

Previously unranked Madison County, Kentucky jumped into the seventh position, with two projects totaling more than $2 billion. This includes the massive Bluegrass Army Depot Mustard Gas Demilitarization plant construction, which is scheduled to begin construction this summer, and an expansion of an automotive tier supplier plant.

Mobile County, Alabama moved from 27th position up to 12th by increasing the number of active projects from 24 up to 28, increasing project spending from $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion. One project scheduled to begin construction this summer is the first phase of the Choctaw Point container terminal and intermodal yard at the Alabama State Docks.

For details on projects used in this analysis, contact Industrial Info's Member Center at 1-800-762-3361.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.