SUGAR LAND, TX--(Marketwired - Aug 22, 2014) - Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- Earlier this month in Galveston, Texas, the Houston chapter of the Society of Maintenance & Reliability Professionals held its annual Maintenance and Reliability Symposium (MaRS). Among the speakers at this year's symposium was Tony Salemme, Industrial Info's Vice President of Labor Market Analytics, who presented on "The Risks and Opportunities of Craft Labor in the Gulf and What it Means for Maintenance Projects."
Industrial Info estimates that labor demand for 13 skilled crafts , including welders, millwrights, pipefitters and more, will increase from 99.1 million hours in 2013 to more than 153 million man-hours in 2016 and 2017. While much of the current literature and statistics about the Gulf Coast craft labor supply focus on major upcoming capital projects, there are also expected to be effects on planned and unplanned maintenance activities at existing facilities.
"This increase in labor demand and higher wage rates from these large capital projects will definitely trickle down into maintenance, as well," said Salemme, "As crews are enticed by higher wages for capital projects, owners and contractors will have to increase wages for maintenance work in order to remain competitive with other projects. If this doesn't happen, we expect to see planned maintenance outages, shutdowns and turnarounds being disrupted or rescheduled."
However, such disruptions in maintenance and reliability operations are not sustainable for the long term. Within the Chemical Industry, shutdowns will be required to tie in new production units. Ethylene unit outages, for example, can often last two months or more and can require thousands of workers to complete.
Maintenance activity within the Refining Industry will undoubtedly play a fairly significant role in labor demand in the near term. Operating at levels of record output this year, the Refining Industry has taken somewhat of a "breather" in turnaround work.
However, Industrial Info expects that 2015-17 will bring a peak in Refining turnaround activity, particularly as Tier 3 fuel standards, which lower the sulfur content in gasoline, will begin to be implemented in 2017. Potential revamps to process lighter grades of crudes, as well as new unit additions within the industry could also lead to increased shutdown activity within the industry.
Industrial Info's Gulf Coast Region Labor Market Analysis has been recently updated for the third quarter. Gain insight into historical and forecast capital and maintenance spending through 2020, as well as current wage rates and expectations for the future. To learn more about this product, contact Industrial Info's VP of Labor Analytics, Tony Salemme, Industrial Info's VP of Labor Analytics at tsalemme@industrialinfo.com or by calling (209) 547-9878 .
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and ten international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. To contact an office in your area, visit the www.industrialinfo.com " Contact Us " page.
Contanct: Tony Salemme Email Contact (209) 547-9878
