Sugar Land, Tex. — Over the last nine months, spending within the U.S. industrial manufacturing industry has remained relatively steady, according to Industrial Info Resources.

During the third quarter of 2007, capital and maintenance projects worth $8.6 billion were completed, and during the fourth quarter, an additional $7.8 billion in project spending was added to that total, a decline of 11.2%. During the first quarter of 2008, spending decreased once again, dropping an additional 11% to $7 billion.

The first large drop in spending within the industrial manufacturing industry is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2008.

For the first quarter of the year, however, the Rocky Mountain region received the largest portion of the capital and maintenance project work that occurred. With spending topping $2.4 billion during the quarter (11 projects), the region maintained a more than $600 million lead over its next closest competition, the Great Lakes region, which has spending of more than $1.7 billion during the quarter. The Great Lakes region had a larger number of projects reach the completion stage during the quarter, 88 in total, the largest of any region in the U.S.

After the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes, there was a significant drop-off in total spending by region. The Southeast region managed a mere $619 million in spending while boasting the second-highest project total at 52. Rounding out the top five spending regions for the first quarter were the Midwest region with $500 million in spending over 32 projects and the Northeast region at $476 million with 35 projects.

Some of the key projects that completed construction during the quarter include a $322 million transmission plant expansion in Michigan, a $300 million automotive assembly plant retool in Missouri, a $200 million printing and mailing plant in Florida and a $168 million semiconductor plant expansion in California.

While spending has been slowly decreasing during the last few quarters, the nation is entering a recession, and contraction is inevitable. Spending numbers over those same quarters still have been healthy. However, they have not been as significant as some of the quarters in the recent past. Jobs are still being created, although not as many as have been lost during the same period.

Industrial Info Resources is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases and multimedia services.