Great Lakes Remains Epicenter of the American Industrial Complex

The Great Lakes region, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, is the largest of the seven U.S. market regions for industrial plant population. With more than 7,500 operational industrial plants, the region accounts for 21 percent of the operational plant population in the U.S. These plants employ more than 1.5 million people, accounting for 24 percent of the nation's industrial plant employment.

The region was hit hard by the economic downturn of 2008-09, as many automotive manufacturing and supplier plant closures and consolidations occurred. However, the region's diversity, with high plant counts in Industrial Manufacturing (2,390 plants), Metals & Minerals (1,242 plants), Food & Beverage (1,207 plants) and Chemical Processing (812 plants), will continue to make it a leader in project spending activity in 2010 and beyond.

Currently, there are more than 1,500 active industrial capital and maintenance (MRO) projects, representing $178 billion in total investment value, under development in the Great Lakes region. These projects range from those in the early planning stages to projects currently under construction, such as the new $600 million lithium ion battery manufacturing plant being built by A123 Systems (Watertown, MA) in Livonia, MI. A second-phase expansion scheduled to begin in 2010 will boost investment at that site to $1.2 billion.

Of the total $178 billion under development, 832 projects with a combined investment value of $56 billion are scheduled to begin construction in 2010. The majority of the work is planned in Illinois and Ohio.