Industrial Report: Demand for specialty factories spurs industrial sector recovery
Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data -- Building Design & Construction, 7/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
The industrial market doubled in the last four years but is still one-third smaller than the peak in 1998.
Jobsite construction spending for factories increased 11% during the past year, mostly for chemical and nonmetallic minerals facilities, which are operating in a supply-constrained world market. Spending to construct general-use factory space declined.
U.S. factory capacity utilization is about 80%, which is enough to generate limited new space and renovation needs but not enough to prevent a slow spending decline for several years.
The U.S. marketshare of the world “goods” market continues to shrink in spite of the boost being received from a depreciating U.S. dollar.
The value of manufacturing construction starts dropped 37% last year as U.S. GDP growth slowed and factory output declined briefly. A recovering economy has boosted starts 76% early in 2007, but this will not persist.
Top 20 industrial design firms
(2006 billings in $ millions)
| Firm | Billings |
| Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list. |
|
| 1. Jacobs Engineering Group | 839.91 |
| 2. CH2M HILL | 326.70 |
| 3. Carter & Burgess | 98.95 |
| 4. SSOE | 56.40 |
| 5. Ghafari Associates | 38.51 |
| 6. URS Corp. | 38.00 |
| 7. Clark, Richardson & Biskup | 37.50 |
| 8. M+W Zander | 35.00 |
| 9. The Benham Cos. | 31.51 |
| 10. Burns & McDonnell | 30.33 |
| 11. Stantec | 25.89 |
| 12. KlingStubbins | 23.40 |
| 13. STV Group | 22.40 |
| 14. Merrick & Co. | 22.05 |
| 15. Ware Malcomb | 21.46 |
| 16. Ingenium Group | 17.90 |
| 17. HDR Architecture | 17.31 |
| 18. Baker and Associates | 16.72 |
| 19. Stellar | 14.99 |
| 20. Flad & Associates | 14.63 |
Top 20 industrial contractors
(2006 revenue in $ millions)
| Firm | Revenue |
| Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list. |
|
| 1. Jacobs Engineering Group | 2,688.88 |
| 2. Fluor Corp. | 739.43 |
| 3. DPR Construction | 710.15 |
| 4. Skanska USA Building | 684.00 |
| 5. Hoffman Construction | 494.10 |
| 6. Stellar | 441.45 |
| 7. Walbridge Aldinger | 423.00 |
| 8. The Turner Corp. | 413.70 |
| 9. PCL Construction Enterprises | 412.96 |
| 10. McShane Construction | 358.85 |
| 11. The Haskell Co. | 337.61 |
| 12. Duke Construction | 334.25 |
| 13. Gray Construction | 310.98 |
| 14. Austin AECOM | 307.00 |
| 15. The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. | 287.91 |
| 16. Graycor | 274.80 |
| 17. H&M Co. | 269.75 |
| 18. The Opus Group | 264.81 |
| 19. Alberici Corp. | 245.88 |
| 20. BE&K | 244.01 |
VIEW ALL GALLERIES