FedEx Plans New Heavy Freight Handling Facility in Lafayette, IN

The weaker dollar of recent is expected to spur sales and exports of U.S. manufactured goods. Shippers, such as FedEx, also expect long-term growth within the U.S., although the current weak economy has caused a dip in their business. An example of shippers looking to the future is FedEx’s recently announced Lafayette, Indiana, facility. According to an article in the Journal & Courier newspaper, "Lafayette could be getting a new FedEx freight shipping center this year after the project received approval from the county Drainage Board Tuesday. The center would replace the one on Concord Road and be slightly larger. The warehouse would be 18,000 square feet with an additional 3,000 square feet of office space." Further, the article says, "The facility would handle larger freight. The new building would have 40 or more docks, compared to the current facility's 24."

Stephen White is the IAMC Active member with FedEx.

"Parcel Trends Revealed," www.afms.com

Honeywell to Move KC Plant, Faces Protests

The travails of building a new plant nowadays include zoning hearings, environmental inspections, flood plain determinations, assessments of earthquake potential, and more. But if the facility makes nuclear weapons components, add to that list peace activist protests. This is what has happened as Honeywell prepares to move a manufacturing plant it operates in Kansas City for the U.S. Nuclear Security Administration to a nearby location. According to an article in KC Community News, "PeaceWorks Kansas City invites public comment regarding the environmental implications of the planned move for Honeywell’s Kansas City Plant from its current location at Bannister Federal Complex, 1500 E. Bannister, to a new facility near the Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport. The Kansas City Plant, part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons complex, produces 85 percent of non-radioactive nuclear bomb components but is categorized as non-nuclear."

Phil Hammel and Tim Fitzpatrick are the IAMC Active members with Honeywell.

Source: www.pemex.com

Air Products Dedicates New Plant in Mexico

The petroleum production industry is a major user of industrial gases, such as nitrogen, which is used to increase the amount of oil that can be extracted from largely depleted wells. PEMEX, the Mexican government owed oil company, purchases nitrogen gas from Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., which recently opened a plant to serve that country’s needs. A CNN article on the plant dedication ceremony says, "Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, flanked by Andres Granier, Governor of Tabasco, formally dedicated the new Air Products and Grupo Infra 90 million standard-cubic-feet-per-day (MMSCFD) nitrogen facility near Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico today. Air Products announced last month that the gas turbine and steam driven facility had begun its on-schedule supply of nitrogen to Pemex Exploracion y Produccion (PEP). The nitrogen is being injected into PEP's Jujo-Tecominoacan oil fields for enhanced oil and natural gas recovery."

Eugene Ervin and Susan Reber are the IAMC Active members with Air Products and Chemicals.

Street scene in Lodz, Poland

Source: www.draddart.com

Dell Lodz, Poland, Plant Update

We reported in the November 2006 IAMC Dispatch Newsletter that Dell was planning a new plant in Lodz to manufacture laptops for Poland and Eastern Europe. Now, an article in the January 2008 RTT News reports that the plant has opened, saying "1/23/2008 3:38:57 PM Wednesday, leading computer maker Dell Inc. (DELL) revealed the opening of a new manufacturing facility in the Polish city of Lodz. The facility is the company's second manufacturing unit in Europe. The new plant is conveniently located so that Dell can serve its growing consumers and businesses in Central and Eastern Europe with improved delivery timings." The article says the plant employs about 1,200 and cost $292 million. As always, Dell’s presence includes a community outreach aspect; the article notes, "the Polish facility will pursue various community projects, such as reducing its environmental impact, providing two schools with Dell products and planting trees in the Lublinek forest park."

Sherry Vance is the IAMC Active member with Dell.

Source: www.intel.com

Intel, IBM and Cisco Open High Performance Computing (HPC) Center in France

Technology companies, such as Intel, IBM and Cisco, constantly work to broaden their markets. A new joint venture of these companies is opening an HPC center in Montpellier, France, to help small and mid-sized organizations develop and test specialized super-computing and other high-end computing applications. A press release says, "This past week IBM teamed with Intel and Cisco to announce the expansion of its [high performance computing] HPC facility in Montpellier, France. The new facility will contain state-of-the-art IBM cluster setups for would-be European customers to benchmark and test their HPC applications. Like other globalized IT firms, IBM is counting on foreign revenue to take up some of the slack of anticipated weaker growth in the U.S this year. That should work out as long as the U.S. doesn't head into a severe recession that would pull the global economy down with it.

Nathan Johnson and Blain Trendler are the IAMC Active members with Intel.

Diagram of Pee Dee Touchstone Energy Commerce City

Source: www.peedeeelectric.com

PepsiCo Plans New SC Distribution Center

Indicative of its growth, Pepsi-Cola of Florence (South Carolina) plans to move to a new distribution center by May of this year. All 200 of the current employees will move to the new facility. An article in South Carolina Now says, "Pepsi-Cola of Florence has announced plans for a new, 155,000-square-foot distribution center in the Pee Dee Touchstone Energy Commerce City in Florence County." Pepsi has had operations in the area since the 1930s but has grown to the point that it cannot house all of its employees in a single location. The article quotes Frank Avent, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Florence’s CEO, as saying "This new distribution center will allow us to continue to grow and will enable us to have all of our Florence employees working out of the same facility."

Russell Burton is the IAMC Active member with PepsiCo.

Caroline Reda, president and CEO of GE Sensing

Source: www.frost.com

GE Opens New Manufacturing Facility in New York

The General Electric business unit GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies has opened a product design manufacturing and facility in New York. A short article on the opening says, "The new USD $6 million facility — design and manufacture remote visual inspection equipment for non-destructive testing in the aerospace, oil & gas and power generation industries. It is expected to employ an estimated 165 employees, and create at least 50 new high-tech jobs during the next five years. GE said that the new facility, which is 73,700 square feet, has the potential for future expansion to 85,700 square feet."

Terry Rees is the IAMC Active member with General Electric.

Artist’s rendering of the new Baker Hughes facility in Dubai

Source: www.arabianbusiness.com

Baker Hughes Opens Manufacturing and HQ Facility in Dubai

With oil prices staying at near-record highs, there’s a strong incentive for new exploration. On this point, an article in ArabianBusiness.com says, "Baker Hughes, an oilfield services company, has announced the official opening of a major new facility in Dubai. The new centre will open on February 14 and is being billed as an important resource for the company's growing business in the Middle East. The Baker Hughes complex, located on 25 acres in the Techno Park at the Jebel Ali Free Zone includes the Middle East Asia Pacific (MEAP) region headquarters and the Eastern Hemisphere Education Center, as well as an operations building and a manufacturing plant." The article quotes Baker Hughes Chairman and CEO Chad Deaton as saying, "The campus represents an investment of more than U.S. $80 million and provides a focal point for our company's growth in the region."

Ralph Crabtree is the IAMC Active member with Baker Hughes, Inc.

Ozburn-Hessey Logistics’ Toronto facility

Source: www.logisticsonline.com

Ozburn-Hessey Extends its Facility Network into Toronto Market

Considering that Canada is the United States’ largest partner, it should come as no surprise that U.S. logistics companies handle a lot of business across this border. Here’s an example from an article in logisticsonline.com: "Ozburn-Hessey Logistics (OH Logistics) announced the expansion of its network with the recent lease of a facility in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, in the Heartland Industrial Park, located approximately 15 minutes from the Toronto International Airport. Mississauga is Canada's sixth largest city." The report quotes OH Logistics’ President of Contract Logistics Bob Spieth as saying, "We are delighted to open this operation in the Toronto area. We were able to leverage our resources to meet our clients' changing needs and to expand our network into this marketplace. The ProVenture team was tremendously helpful throughout the process of identifying and leasing this great facility."

Randy Wolcott is the IAMC Active member with Ozburn-Hessey Logistics. IAMC Associate member ProVenture Corporate Real Estate is represented in IAMC by Jeb Atkinson.