The nascent manufacturing renaissance that’s happening in the Gulf Coast region isn’t just creating a bunch of home-grown jobs in Louisiana. It’s also managing to steal a few back that had gone overseas.
As Business Report details in a feature from the current issue, Canadian methanol producer Methanex is the local embodiment of a trend known as reshoring, where production work that had been farmed out to foreign lands is coming to the United States. In Methanex’s case, the company is breaking down two plants in Chile and moving the work to Geismar at a cost of $1.4 billion. The first of the two plants already has been reassembled and started cranking out product Jan. 24.
While Methanex’s moves represent a reshoring rarity in this region, the company’s reasoning for bringing the work here is indicative of what’s driving the manufacturing rebirth as a whole—primarily, cheap and abundant natural gas, which is the petrochemical industry’s most important fuel and feedstock. And as Methanex decides whether to move yet another plant to the United States, it will be watching the same factors as others who wonder how long the trend will last.
“The impact of shale gas development in North America has resulted in a competitive natural gas environment and a positive environment to produce methanol,” says Meg Mahoney, who manages public affairs for the company’s Louisiana projects. “The U.S. Gulf Coast and Louisiana possess world-class infrastructure, skilled workers and a very positive, low-risk environment in which to do business.”
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