The list of megaprojects breaking ground in the industrial corridor running between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is long and getting longer.
While the tsunami-sized wave of investment—currently pegged at some $7.5 billion—will bring unprecedented economic benefits, writes Business Report, it also raises significant questions about the region’s ability to provide the manpower needed to build them.
“What we’re seeing is so weird and off the charts that it has changed how we look at projects,” says Loren C. Scott, an economist in Baton Rouge. “Now we think that $1 billion is not that much.” Much of the work will likely hit the area in late 2019 and early 2020, with projects by Yuhang Chemical, ExxonMobil, Formosa, Shintech, Valero, Diamond Green Diesel and others expected to overlap.
Why is it happening now? Scott puts it succinctly: “cheap and abundant natural gas.” Most of the plants will use the product for fuel or as a raw material. “They’re coming to the place that’s got the cheapest natural gas in the world,” he says. “That’s driving most of the big ones, especially between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.”
In fact, any lull in industrial construction is merely the calm before the storm, says Lee Jenkins, vice president at Performance Contractors in Baton Rouge.
