...near customers’ bases,” Smith says. “Now they are building them closer to feedstock supplies.”

Smith also notes a growing demand for poly silicone plants, a vital substance for manufacturing solar panels. “That is a driver that didn’t exist two years ago.”

Still, there is growing demand among petroleum and petrochemical producers for new processing facilities around the world, says Peter Stalenhoef, president and CEO of heavy industrial for Edmonton, Canada-based PCL Constructors Inc. From its fabrication facility in Alberta, the firm has tapped a strong market for steam generators among hydrocarbon-based clients on projects in Kuwait, Madagascar and other locations in the Middle East. “It is the very beginning of that market” for PCL, Stalenhoef says.

Global connectivity has broadened prospects for contractors, but also opened up the playing field to new competition, both among contractors and clients. World competition has manufacturers playing their cards close to their vests this year when it comes to revealing project details. Nearly across the board in this sector, contractors are declining to give details about who they are working for and where. “Particularly in this sector,” says Gelbar. “They are such competitive markets.”

It is the same story in Europe, says Ulf Erickson, director of Holborn, U.K.-based WSP Group’s construction division in Stockholm. “I can tell you that we are doing a lot of work in the industrial markets in Scandinavia, but I can’t tell you any more than that,” he says. But Erickson does note that after several years of heated industrial markets in Europe, “they have started going down. The markets here have been at a high level for the past three or four years, and 2007 was the highest. We have seen a lot of work in steel and in mining driven by demand in Asia for metals, including copper and silver, but it works in cycles and we expect the decrease to start coming next year accordingly.”

PCL Constructors Inc. Skilled labor now is scarce throughout the world.

Industrial markets in Russia, however, are ripening, says Michael McKelvy, president of manufacturing and life sciences for CH2M Hill. “There are many multi-national companies looking to locate around Moscow and St. Petersburg, particularly in the aluminum processing, automotive and food and beverage markets,” he says. “Originally it was all American and European companies, but we are starting to see more and more Russian clients, and they have started to become more comfortable hiring foreign contractors to do those projects.”

But McKelvy notes that business abroad does often come with a few caveats as cultural and geographic differences inevitably rear up in many regions. “It is expensive to work in Russia both because of the harsh weather and the way business works there,” he says.

With globalization’s influence on markets ongoing for several years, contractors and clients now are reaping the benefits of relationships that have had to time to gel. That is an aspect of globalization CH2M Hill is uniquely positioned to leverage, as the firm has offices in Russia, China, Singapore, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. “It is part of our global project execution,” McKelvy says.

The firm has continued its commitment to plant roots in burgeoning globalized markets by securing a general contracting license in China last year, positioning it among a few foreign firms with that capability.

As a result, the firm now regularly self-performs engineering, procurement, construction and management contracts in China, most recently doing EPC on a $15-million manufacturing plant for American Axle in Shanghai this year.

Labor Crunch

But as prospects explode, the availability of manpower is a snag that contractors accept as a long-term market problem to be reckoned with. “The trend is that everywhere you go these days, you’d better have a labor strategy,” says Greg Kozicz, CEO of St. Louis-based Alberici Constructors Ltd. “Demand for ironworkers is really significant, and as a result, we are seeing more relatively inexperienced people in the trades. Owners are staggering phasing to deal with lack of labor, and sometimes competing owners are communicating with one another in order to phase projects around labor availability.”

In the labor crunch’s wake, “there have been some delays,” says CH2M Hill’s Smith. To cope, “we build time into projects, but it takes creativity, and we have to be a lot better at every aspect of the delivery process.”