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Industrial Report: Demand for specialty factories spurs industrial sector recovery

Aug. 11, 2010
11 min read

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

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