While the construction market is hamstrung by atmospheric price increases for materials and frustratingly long lead times, an impressive array of megaprojects have hit the drawing boards or broke ground over the past few months. See chart below for the largest projects. or click here to download a database of more than 200 construction projects with estimated total construction value of $100 million or more that are either underway or in the planning stage.
New electric vehicle (EV) plants, battery factories, semiconductor chip foundries, data centers and downtown urban renewal projects dominate the list of largest projects with a total construction value topping $1 billion. The electrical portion of a construction project can easily account for 10% of the total value.
One of the largest projects announced recently was Hyundai Motor Group plans for a $5.5 billion EV factory near Savannah, GA. Georgia will also be home to a $5 billion Rivian EV plant that will produce electrically powered trucks at a mega-facility east of Atlanta. VinFast, a huge Vietnamese industrial conglomerate, will also build an EV plant in the Southeast. It plans to invest $2 billion in the first phase of an EV factory near Raleigh, NC, that will start construction in July, 2024. Panasonic also announced in July that it will build a $4 billion EV battery plant west of Kansas City, MO, that will eventually have up to 5,000 workers.
With Ford and General Motors planning to invest a combined total of more than $18 billion in EV and battery plants, and Intel planning to build or renovate facilities at this scale in Ohio and Arizona, it’s easy to see why the EV/battery/semiconductor niche will soon be the hottest construction niche in the industrial market. And when the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Biden signed into law on Aug. 9 , kicks into gear, according to a report in the New York Times it will have $52 billion in subsidies and tax credits for global chip manufacturers that build or expand operations in the United States.
