Western Pennsylvania Manufacturing Holding up in 2008

An article in the Pittsburgh Post this week highlights the relative strength of Western Pennsylvania’s manufacturing in 2008.   The survey was completed in September, so it doesn’t include the meltdown months of October and November that have sent manufacturing into a tailspin nation wide.  What’s interesting, is the article sites the fact that 78% of the companies surveyed increase employment over the past 3 years.   That’s good news for an industry that’s been under duress from cheap imports and offshoring.

In some sense, Pennsylvania is more capable of handling the downturn that most states.  The State’s manufacturing base is diversified since the days of the Steel industry.  There is a solid number of companies – most of them private – making components and equipment used around the world.   Timing is important as well – Pennsylvania went through tough times in the 1980’s and has since rebounded  – there are a lot of smaller companies that have found niche businesses with few competitors.

Link to Article

Read Full Post »

Pennsylvania Economy: Church & Dwight to move facility to Pennsylvania

Church & Dwight, the manufacturer of Arm & Hammer branded products, Oxi-Clean, and a wide variety of other consumer products, announced yesterday that it will re-locate a detergent manufacturing operation to York County Pennsylvania.  The move to PA was decided after a year long search of trying to find a cost-effective and strategic location – York County fit the bill with access to highways and close proximity to major markets.  Construction will start on the 1.1 sq. ft. facility in Sept. 2008 and be finished in 2009.  Church & Dwight has announced that the new facility will reflect its commitment to sustainability – The site design reflects Church & Dwight’s long-standing concern for the environment – the facility will use 30% less energy, produce 50% less solid waste and use renewable energy sources for on-site processing needs.  The company is offering transition plans for some of the N.J. work-force and they are going to hire a substantial number of Pennsylvanians – perhaps, numbering in the hundreds.  Church & Dwight is a $2.2B company and says that its detergent divison is its most important in terms of future growth.

Read Full Post »

Pennsylvania Natural Resources: Natural Gas Boom

There’s an article in State College based Centre Daily Times (link) that points out some of the developments in natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.  Since 2000 – the number of wells drilled has gone from 1,350 to 4,180 in 2006.  According to the article – there was a 21% increase in the number of gas and oil drilling permits processed in 2006 over the year.  A lot of the drilling is a result of high natural gas prices making it sensible to shell out more money to drill through the Marcellus layer of shell that runs through Pennsylvania into New York and Ohio.  The shale layer has created a type of seal – trapping vast amounts of natural gas below it (almost 200 trillion cubic feet by some estimates), but also creating a formidable barrier (in both cost and difficulty) for drillers as it is hundreds of feet thick.  Pennsylvania may regain its reputation for being a key energy producing state that was partially lost with the rise of oil as the key energy commodity in the U.S.  Individual land owners are already taking phone calls from gas companies – some offering as much as $2k per acre per year to drill on their property.  That seems like a small price, but consider that it takes anywhere from $800k to $3M to drill through the shale. With careful and considerate extraction, this could very well be a gift to Pennsylvania. 

Link to another article on Penn State Live. Link.

Read Full Post »

Amazon to Build Facility in Pennsylvania

They didn’t name Pennsylvania the keystone because of its importance to national distribution – but…they could have.  PA is becoming a hot bed for state-of-the-art distribution operations – drive down I 80 or  I 76 and you’ll see new mega distibution centers popping-up.  Amazon.com just announced a new 600,000 sq. ft facility near Hazelton that will emplyee ~1200 Pennsylvanians.  Although they are sometimes eye soars if constructed in the wrong location, they are keeping the economy vibrant.  Distribution facilities often attract company regional headquarters – adding to the diversity of employment. 

Read Full Post »

Collegeville Company Announces Pollution Cuts

This isn’t something that you see very often – a Collegeville company, Superior Tube Company, Inc. announced in February that it is going to stop using highly toxic trichloroethylene (TCE) in its plant. TCE is known to cause cancer in humans and often contaminates water supplies and the air downwind from a facility. Superior Tube, the 4th largest TCE polluter in the U.S., was under no legal obligations, but was under pressure from citizens and environmental group, PennFuture.  The DEP had previously struck down emission controls on the grounds that it wasn’t cost effective.  PennFuture engaged with company Matson & Associates to demonstrate that there were several cost-effective ways of reducing TCE pollution.  The win should put pressure on another regional TCE polluter who is listed as the 5th largest such polluter in the country.  If the pollution controls stay in place and they are indeed cost effective – what a win for everyone.

Link to Press Release.

Read Full Post »