Situated midway between the state’s two largest cities, St. James Parish has had a perfect vantage point to observe Baton Rouge and New Orleans as they deal with the benefits and challenges of industrial investment.
But as 10/12 Industry Report details in a feature from the current issue, St. James is not an idle bystander in south Louisiana’s economic development success. In the past five years, Louisiana’s second-smallest parish by total area has become one of the busiest areas in the state for new industrial investment.
Buoyed by favorable transport links, its location on a deepwater port, available land and industry-ready sites along the Mississippi River, St. James Parish has been a significant player in the state’s industrial construction boom, with $9 billion of industrial investment under development or in the planning stage.
“St. James Parish is uniquely qualified for this type of growth,” says Parish President Timmy Roussel. “With the waterway, rail and the interstate system, these companies have an ease of transportation and a variety of opportunities to get their products to and from their plant.”
The largest project is China-based Yuhuang Chemical’s $1.85 billion methanol manufacturing complex. The three-phase project will directly employ 400 people and create an estimated 2,300 indirect jobs across southeast Louisiana. The company broke ground on the project in late September.
Another significant project is South Louisiana Methanol (SLM), which announced in 2013 that it would invest $1.3 billion in a new methanol production facility on the banks of the Mississippi River. The project—though behind schedule—is expected to create 63 direct jobs, with an additional 374 indirect jobs. Construction is projected to begin in 2016. The SLM project lies across the Mississippi River from Nucor’s $750 million direct reduced iron plant, the first phase of a potential five-phase $3.4 billion complex estimated to employ 1,250 people. The plant began operating in December 2013.
And just last week, Houston-based Syngas Energy Holdings announced it plans to break ground on a $360 million methanol plant in St. James during the second quarter of next year.
Read the full feature. Send your comments to editor@1012industryreport.com. And be sure to check out more stories from the current issue of 10/12 Industry Report.
