Just thought I would post some good news on the job front. I thought this was interesting particularly since it involves a huge industry that is moving back to the U.S.
Bloomberg: Cheap Shale Gas Means Dow Leads Record Expansion in U.S. Chemical Industry
[QUOTE=Bloomberg]
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) spent a decade moving chemical production to the Middle East and Asia. Now it’s leading the biggest expansion ever seen back home in the U.S. as shale gas revives the industry’s economics.
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[QUOTE=Bloomberg]
Dow will spend about $4 billion to construct a cracker near the Gulf Coast by 2017, reopen another in Louisiana, and build two propylene plants, Liveris said in a July 8 telephone interview from Dow’s Midland, Michigan, headquarters. That investment will supply ingredients for Dow plants making high- margin products such as paint additives and automotive plastics.
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[QUOTE=Bloomberg]
U.S. chemical-industry employment fell to 782,000 from a peak of 1.1 million in 1981, Kevin Swift, chief economist for the American Chemistry Council, said in an interview.
Dow, the world’s biggest maker of ethylene and polyethylene, employs 25,000 people in the U.S. The company will add 500 manufacturing and 2,500 construction jobs with its Gulf Coast expansion, said Liveris, who President Barack Obama appointed in June to co-chair the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, which is tasked with improving U.S. manufacturing competitiveness.
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[QUOTE=Bloomberg]
“Everyone called the U.S. commodity chemical industry dead a few years ago,” Mark Demos, who helps manage $18 billion as a fund manager at Fifth Third Asset Management in Minneapolis, said in an interview. “All the sudden, with plentiful natural gas, the margin story in commodity chemicals looks pretty favorable.”
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