Top Five U.S. Chemical Processing Projects Planned for 2008 Total more than $2.2 Billion

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The new year has arrived, and industry observers begin to think and rethink their outlook and forecast for the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) during 2008. If the top CPI projects ranked by total investment value (TIV) play any role in the industry's confidence or outlook, the stage has been positively been set. The top five CPI projects planned to begin construction this year total more than $2.2 billion in combined investments. Projects of this size play a significant role in promoting upstream and downstream project spending for supporting infrastructure like terminals, transportation, energy and many others.

When this very similar analysis was assembled early last year, the five biggest planned projects covered four states. This year, the five top projects can be found in three states: Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina. Three of these projects are planned for Louisiana with a combined TIV of $1.5 billion. Shintech Louisiana LLC (Addis, Louisiana) expects to begin construction for the Phase II expansion of its new Plaquemine vinyls complex, which it began constructing three years ago. Also in Louisiana are plans for a grassroot activated carbon plant planned by ADA-ES Incorporated (Littleton, Colorado) and a grassroot air separation plant by Lake Charles Cogeneration LLC (Houston, Texas) in Westlake, Louisiana, to support a proposed $1.3 billion pet coke to syngas plant.

E I du Pont de Nemours & Company (NYSE:DD) (Wilmington, Delaware) has secured an engineering and construction firm for the expansion of its Kevlar product at the company's Coopers River plant in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Initial phases of construction for the estimated $500 million project are already underway. Also along the East Coast, INVISTA Incorporated (Wichita, Kansas) has secured an engineer to help design and plan a major expansion of its polyester intermediates plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, potentially beginning construction in the fourth quarter of this year.

These projects are each in various phases of development, ranging from planning to civil construction. As a whole, most of these projects appear to be on a very positive development path, and confidence is high that each will begin some phase of construction this year. These major projects represent nearly one-fifth of the total CPI spending identified to begin construction this year in the United States as reported in Industrial Info's North American Project Database.

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