The following information was gleaned from recent reports by Industrial Info Resources (www.industrialinfo.com), based in Sugar Land, TX.

More than $8 billion in industrial capital projects are planned to begin construction in the third and fourth quarters of 2006 in the Rocky Mountain region. This is up from the nearly $7 billion in capital projects planned for the same time period in 2005. The industrial manufacturing sector will lead the spending trend with over $2 billion planned to kick off in the latter half of this year. The largest project planned for construction is a $1 billion semiconductor plant expansion planned by Micron Technology, in Boise, ID. Construction on this project is slated to begin this summer and be complete in 2008.

The Rocky Mountain Region is made up of nine states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The majority of the 170 new plants scheduled to come on line will be in Arizona with 35 new plants. Colorado and Idaho will follow with 22 and 18 plants each, respectively.

Industrial project construction activity is up significantly in Ohio in 2006 when compared to 2005. The number of projects planned to begin construction in 2006 is 267, which is up from 227 in 2005. Total investment value has doubled, going from $4 billion in 2005 up to $8.3 billion in 2006. More than half of the project spending is occurring in southeastern Ohio, which includes Columbus metropolitan area and the Ohio River area.

Industrial construction has been pretty slow in Los Angeles County lately. Only a handful of new plants are currently under construction in the county, including an $8 million battery manufacturing plant being built by Battery Systems, Inc. (Long Beach) and a food distribution center being built by Golden State Foods Corporation in the City of Industry. The battery plant is scheduled for completion in September 2006.

This could all change if a slew of projects on the drawing board get approved, including light rail and LNG terminal projects worth billions of dollars. Right now, there is close to $9 billion in future spending being planned for 111 industrial projects in Los Angeles County. Of that total, about 60% is for energy-related projects such as LNG and crude oil storage terminals, petroleum refining unit retrofits, power plant upgrades, and new power plants.

While more commonly known for oil and chemical plants, the state of Texas is steadily becoming home to a growing number of projects from the pharmaceutical and biotech fields. A recent survey revealed some $1.1 billion worth of pharma-bio capital projects with construction starts scheduled from January 2006 and beyond. Harris County, home to Houston and the renowned Texas Medical Center, has snagged the majority of current planned spending activity.