2014 West South Central Region Forecast

In many years, Texas dominates the economic headlines in this region, but because of the huge growth and projects on the drawing boards for Louisiana’s petrochemical and heavy industrial industries, the Bayou State takes top honors in 2013. Breaking ground this year in Louisiana were a $975 million, 1.35 million-sq-ft Benteler Steel/Tube mill in Shreveport, La., to produce hot-rolled, seamless steel tube; a $580 million expansion of the Port of New Orleans and the $850 million Dyno Nobel International ammonia manufacturing plant in Jefferson Parish, La. According to New Orleans’ Times Picayune,work should begin soon on Dow Chemical’s $1.06 billion investment in two new chemical plants in Iberville and West Baton Rouge, La. Some of the planned projects are just as big or even larger – the New Orleans' billion-dollar 2014-2018 Capital Improvement Plan includes $706 million for a new airport terminal; the $1.5 billion Louisiana International Gulf Transfer Terminal is under serious discussion; and a multi-billion dollar petrochemical "cracker" plant that would convert ethane natural gas to ethylene is also on the drawing boards.

There’s plenty of activity across the Gulf of Mexico, too, as State Farm Insurance recently broke ground on a $500 million facility in Richardson, Texas, and Pattern Energy Group started construction on a $400 million, 118-turbine wind farm to produce 218MW of electricity in Carson County, Texas. There’s also a new Southwest terminal being built at Houston’s Hobby Airport and  a 325,000-sq. ft. Skansa office tower underway in Houston. McGraw-Hill Construction reported that a new 1,000-room Fairmont Hotel will break ground in Austin and a 1,000-room Marriott Hotel will start construction in Houston during 4Q 2013. The biggest project on the drawing boards in Texas appears to be the Freeport LNG Expansion Development facility in Houston to export liquefied natural gas. The Houston Business Journal reports the project’s owners are looking for $12 billion in financing and could start construction as early as next year.

Acquisition activity in the West South Central Region. Mayer Electric's purchase of Mustang Electric Supply may be sign of future expansion in Texas for this regional giant from the Southeast. Details

 ELECTRICAL WHOLESALING TOP 200 DISTRIBUTORS
WITH THEIR HEADQUARTERS IN THIS REGION

Texas is home to some of the largest independent distributors in the United States, as well as two of the largest in North America - Rexel Holdings USA and Consolidated Electrical Distributors (CED). Details

RECENT NEW BRANCH OPENINGS

IN THE WEST SOUTH CENTRAL REGION

The Texas oil fields are attracting alot of new branches, but no one is doing it on the scale of Elliott Electric Supply. If your company has opened a new branch and would like it publicized in Electrical Wholesaling's print edition or on www.ewweb.com, please send the information (and a high-resolution photo if possible to Jim Lucy, EW's chief editor, at [email protected] 

WEST SOUTH CENTRAL REGION

ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTOR SALES DATA

EMPLOYMENT DATA FOR THE WEST SOUTH CENTRAL REGION

You can use the employment data below to calculate sales potential for key customer groups by region, state and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) by using this data and Electrical Wholesaling's 2014 Sales Multipliers. To get these multipliers and to learn how to use them, click here to get to Electrical Wholesaling 2014 Market Planning Guide. Just scroll down and search for "multipliers."